Special Lives
by 1358456
Summary: A story based on Pokémon Special the manga. It's a time of peace with no evil threatening the world for once. But it seems that the Dex Holders can never enjoy the peace for long, as they have their personal conflicts to tackle. After all, the life of a Dex Holder is always intense, whether it's fighting off evil or desperately struggling to get the attention of their loved ones...
1. Bankruptcy

**Welcome to the fourth of my Special-series stories, Special Lives (SL). This story focuses on the lives of all 15 Dex Holders (hence the title), and unlike Special Adventures (SA), will not have any evil teams. SL will feature minimal amount of non-Dex Holders (such as Gym Leaders, other friends, etc). They may appear, but won't be doing anything major. Also unlike Special Events (SE) and Special Randomness (SR), SL will not be a compilation of random events.**

**SL will feature 5 separate storylines occurring at once, 1 for each region. Each one will have different tone and mood, and while they may seem to have nothing to do with each other, all 5 storylines will converge at some point. At least that's the plan.**

**SL will take place after the BW arc, but since I am not the creator of Pokémon Special and thereby don't have the super abilities of looking into the future, the whole plot of BW will be worked around. (WARNING: PLATINUM/BW SPOILER) Following the conclusion of Platinum arc, Diamond, Pearl, and Platinum will not have met their seniors yet but have heard about Gold. Following the (was) recent happenings within BW arc, White does get a Pokédex (from Bianca), making her the 15****th**** Dex Holder (END SPOILER).**

**Pairings… precious pairings… Same as SE/SA, they are: Red & Yellow (not in primary focus), Green & Blue, Gold & Crystal, Ruby & Sapphire, Diamond & Platinum, and Black & White.**

**Warning: SL may contain some bad f*cking language some viewers might view as offensive/inappropriate, as clearly demonstrated. That sounded like a parody of a TV discretion message…**

**Segment: Black & White.**

* * *

Chapter 1: Bankruptcy

April 20, Route 9 (Unova), 10 am…

"Um… sir?"

"…"

"Sir?"

"…"

"SIR!"

Black snapped back into focus. He could see the shopping mall clerk staring at him with a very impatient look on her face. Black glanced backwards and saw a huge line behind him.

"Right, sorry," he said to the clerk.

"Are you going to make a purchase today?"

"Yes, of course." Black pointed at the display case and made his selection of various potions and other healing items.

Once he finally made his purchase, he left the Shopping Mall Nine, ready to challenge the Pokémon League. He even had the company logo for the BW Agency, as promised to White a long time ago. Speaking of White…

"I wonder how Miss President's doing," Black muttered as he stared at the BW Agency logo sewn onto his bag. "Maybe I should call her and see if she wants to watch me participate in the Pokémon League."

Black looked at his Xtransciever and simply stared at the number pad, as he actually had no idea what White's Xtransciever number was. But White did give him her business card when they first met… Black took out his wallet and soon spotted the BW Agency business card. He tried calling the number listed but got no answer. For some reason, the call didn't connect to start with.

"Huh… maybe the number changed," Black muttered as he cancelled the call. With his Braviary, he headed towards Opelucid City's Pokémon Center. There were usually two to three advertisements for the BW Agency on every Pokémon Center's bulletin board, so Black decided to search there.

5 minutes later, Black arrived in Opelucid City and entered the Pokémon Center. Inside, he could see a man tearing down a small poster on the bulletin board. Upon closer inspection, Black noticed the small poster was an advertisement promoting a program within BW Agency.

"Hey, what are you doing?" he asked as he grabbed onto the poster.

"This ad is no longer valid," the man replied. "So I'm removing it."

"How do you know that the ad's invalid?" Black asked.

"I work for the company, kid," the man replied. "Well, I won't be in a few hours…"

"What do you mean by that?" Black asked.

The man sighed. "Why do you want to know?"

"I used to work for BW Agency too," Black replied. "And knowing Miss President, she won't fire anyone unless that employee _really_ screwed up multiple times."

"I'm not being fired, kid," the man said. "I'm being released, along with everyone else."

"What? Why?"

"Don't you read or watch the news? Anyways, I should get going. I need to go pick up my last paycheck."

"Wait!" Black yelled just as the man started to turn away. "Where… where's Miss President right now?"

"I don't know," the man replied. "But the very last filming location was Striaton City."

Once the man left, Black immediately walked up to the nurse of the Pokémon Center. "Excuse me, do you have any spare newspaper anywhere?"

"Of course," the nurse replied. She looked under the counter for a second before facing Black again. "There is one from yesterday and one from today. Which one would you like?"

"Uh… both, please. But why do you have newspapers under the counter?"

"As you might imagine, standing here 12 hours a day can be _quite_ boring, especially if no one needs to heal their Pokémon," the nurse replied as she handed the Unova Dex Holder the newspapers. "Anyways, please come again!"

Black headed towards an empty table in the corner of the Pokémon Center and scanned through the newspapers. There was nothing worth noting from the most recent one, but the news from the day before had something very shocking.

"_The Pokémon Talents Company known as the BW Agency is facing its fourth consecutive lawsuit within seven days from various trainers who claim that their Pokémon have become aggressive and disobedient after participating in the company's programs."_

Black set the newspaper down. Based on the article and the encounter with an employee, he was able to figure out what happened. He wasn't sure whether the mentioned issues were worth suing the company, but there were people who sued everybody…

'_So BW Agency was sued four times and if what that man told me is true, the company lost all four times… Miss President wouldn't have enough money afterwards to keep her employees. She had no choice but to release them and she's probably…_' Black jumped to his feet. "She's bankrupt…"

The Unova Dex Holder ran out of the Pokémon Center and sent out his Braviary once again. According to the BW Agency employee, the last filming location was in Striaton City, and he had to get there as soon as possible. Although White wouldn't be in the city, there would be some clues as to her whereabouts.

'_But… why didn't she call me when her company got sued the first time? Surely she'd let me know if she needed any support…_' Black thought as his Braviary carried him towards Striaton City. Before long, he figured out why White didn't contact him at all. And it made him even more desperate to find her. '_Her pride… Miss President is very proud of her work and her company. Anything bad to the company would hit her hard. If she was sued, then the last thing she'd want is to spread her 'ruined' reputation. She'd want to keep it a secret, even from me. But with four consecutive lawsuits, the news all over Unova, and her company bankrupt… she'll want to disappear forever…_' Black looked at his Braviary. "Brav, starting today, we may have to go all over Unova to find Miss President before she does anything that she'll regret later on. I know it'll be very tiring, but we have to find her, no matter where she is. Are you ready for it?" The Braviary nodded, indicating that it was indeed ready to search every square millimeter of Unova if it had to.

An hour later, Black arrived at Striaton City. The moment he landed, he began to search around to see if he could find any trace of BW Agency's last filming. He entered the Pokémon Center and asked the nurse if she saw any filming crew in the city recently.

"Now that you mention it," the nurse said as she began to think. "There was a small filming crew near the Gym a couple of days ago. But they didn't stay long. I heard they went to Castelia City because of a lawsuit…"

"Did you happen to see a girl with them?" Black asked. "She's about my age, has long dark hair and blue eyes. She also has a pink and white hat and a black vest."

"Yes, she was with them. They all went to Castelia City together."

"Great. Thank you."

Black exited the Pokémon Center and got his Braviary to take him to Castelia City. There was no way that White would've stayed in the business center of Unova, but there would be clues to her whereabouts there…

…

12 hours later, Nuvema Town…

…

Black let out a long groan as he climbed onto his bed in his home. He was absolutely exhausted from traveling all over Unova in a single day without getting any rest whatsoever. He still didn't find White or hear about her whereabouts, and he was getting more and more worried. But with no leads and being physically unable to continue searching that day, he decided to sleep and hope that his rested mind (with Munna's help, of course) would be able to deduct a possible location for the missing girl.

Following the hint from Striaton City, Black had searched Castelia City and heard that White had to go to Mistralton City to take care of a group of trainers who demanded their Pokémon back and threatened to sue if they didn't get a full refund. So Black had went over to Mistralton and searched around. He heard from Skyla that she saw White leaving Mistralton and heading towards the direction of Lacunosa Town with her Vullaby.

But as it turned out, White didn't go to Lacunosa Town (either that, or the citizens of Lacunosa lied about not seeing any visitors). As a result, Black had to search thoroughly through Lacunosa Town, Undella Town, and even Opelucid City to see if White was there. Again, his attempts had failed.

Having depleted his options, Black had returned to Nuvema Town to see if Professor Juniper and Bianca have heard about anything. Unfortunately, they didn't hear anything about White either. Black had no choice but to return home for the night. The moment he lied down on his bed, he fell asleep from the exhaustion.

_Black opened his eyes and immediately found himself lying on the cold floor of an unfamiliar room. He rose to his feet and looked around, wondering where he was._

"_Black…" came a quiet, familiar female voice._

"… _Miss President?"_

"_Black…"_

_The Unova Dex Holder followed the voice to its source. He could sense the voice becoming louder with each step he took. Eventually, Black stood in front of the door where the voice was coming from. He opened the door and sure enough, he found White in the dark room with her back facing the door._

"_Miss President! There you are!" Black exclaimed happily. But White didn't move at all. "Miss President?"_

_The Unova Dex Holder found the light switch and flipped it on. The dark room instantly brightened and Black could see White in full detail. He then realized that her feet weren't touching the floor, and that there was a rope attached to the ceiling that was wrapped around her throat…_

"_Miss President!" Black yelled as he hastily ran over to her. To his surprise and horror, the moment he was able to see her face, White turned away from him._

"_Black… stop trying to find me," she said slowly and quietly._

_Black stood frozen for a second, wondering how exactly White was moving and talking when she was dead. A thought occurred and everything made sense. "This is all a dream…"_

"_Stop looking for me…"_

_Black shook away the new realization and moved so that he could see White's eyes. "Miss President," he started resolutely. "I __**will**__ find you and I __**will**__ set everything right. I promise you that."_

_Black looked around and noticed that there were various pictures hanging from the wall. Each picture had White staring into the distance with a crestfallen expression while holding a long length of rope._

"_Please don't look for me," White said again._

_Black turned to face her. "No. For your own good, Miss President, I __**will**__ find you." He then sent out his Munna. "Musha, wake me up from this nightmare."_

_The Munna bit his head and instantly, the dream world began to distort and fade. Black closed his eyes so that he wouldn't have to look at the dizzying scene of everything swirling away._

When he opened his eyes again, he was seeing various black and white spots, all changing positions to create silhouettes.

'_What the hell? … Oh, right. Musha._'

The black and white spots created a silhouette he immediately recognized as White. Black began to remind himself of all the clues he found regarding White's whereabouts.

'_Okay… Miss President is bankrupt, and her company is out of business. She didn't call me because she doesn't want to talk about it or even be seen in public at all. She's probably hiding somewhere away from the center of Unova, but not in Lacunosa Town or Undella Town. That dream I had… Miss President told me to stop looking for her, so it matches my speculation that she doesn't want to be seen. She hanged herself in the dream because that's what she feels like doing._'

The silhouettes changed again and Black realized where White was hiding, if his dream meant anything. He took his Munna off of his head and blinked a few times to restore his vision to normal. He jumped off of his bed and prepared to leave.

"Those pictures on the wall… Miss President was staring at a bridge in every single one of them. There are five bridges in Unova, but there's only one that's as old fashioned as seen in those pictures…"

…

Two hours later, Village Bridge…

…

Black walked around the houses lined up on the old fashioned bridge, marveled by the serenity of the area. There were lots of people fishing, swimming, walking, and even sleeping in the calm bridge, as if none of them had a single care in the world. Black approached some of them and asked if they saw White given her description. Unfortunately, none of them seemed to have seen or even heard about her. They didn't even know about BW Agency to start with.

Black was now certain that White was hiding somewhere in Village Bridge. If people don't even know about the BW Agency, then they wouldn't know anything about the four consecutive lawsuits and therefore White would have no qualms about staying. No one knew about her, therefore no one would know about her ruined reputation.

After two hours worth of searching, Black entered an old fashioned café so that he could take a very short break. The 'café' was more like a very small restaurant where customers could buy anything from a small drink to a full dinner meal. At the counter, Black ordered a small iced coffee.

Black sat at a small table and as he waited for his order to arrive, pondered whether his nightmare didn't actually mean anything and he was wasting his time in Village Bridge. Unless White changed her appearance, surely _someone_ would've seen her given her description.

"Hey Black," came a voice from behind.

The Unova Dex Holder snapped out of his thoughts and looked back. He could see a rather chubby lady holding a large tray filled with freshly baked bread. It took him a couple of seconds to recognize her.

"Ah, Miss Chris," he said as he rose to greet her.

"It's nice to see you again," Chris said with a warm smile. "What brings you all the way to Village Bridge? Are you looking for your friend?"

Black almost jumped in surprise. "How do you know about that?"

"Oh, I told you. As I travel from place to place, I hear all sorts of things," Chris said dismissively.

"So you do know where Miss President is?" Black asked excitedly.

"Well, yes," the baker replied. "She's h-" The baker was interrupted by the sound of something shattering. "Oh dear. I better go take care of that. Sorry Black, this is a very busy hour. But you are right. She's here in Village Bridge."

As the baker hastily headed towards the source of the shattering sound, Black sat at the table and let out a long sigh in relief. So White really was hiding somewhere in Village Bridge. His dream wasn't meaningless after all. His thoughts were interrupted by a waiter yelling at people in the cooking area.

"Hey! New guy! Orders at Tables 3 and 4! New girl! Tables 6 and 7!"

Black looked at his table and saw that it was Table 7. He looked over at Table 6 and saw the new waitress carefully placing a plate of food on the table. He couldn't see the expression completely because of the large tray obscuring his vision, but the new waitress had a really hollow smile.

'_Huh. I wonder what her problem is,_' Black thought.

His question was answered when the new waitress came to his table with his iced coffee. The new waitress saw him and dropped her tray in surprise. The glass of iced coffee shattered on the floor and Black turned to look at the waitress. He immediately froze and stared at the waitress with his mouth open in shock. The new girl had her hands over her mouth and looked rather horrified.

"B – Black…" she muttered in an awfully familiar voice.

"… Miss President…"

* * *

**Note: the Chris above is NOT Crystal, the 7****th**** Dex Holder. Crystal's name would be written as Crys for short in my stories. (WARNING: BW SPOILER) The Chris above is the Baker class lady that appears in Nimbasa City in the BW arc and gives White multiple Pokéballs so that she could catch her first Pokémon when she decides to give the Battle Subway a try (END SPOILER). And as mentioned in the BW arc, Baker Chris is in the games in Village Bridge. If you beat her in a battle, she offers you to work for her, being paid in… Lum Berries (or at least I think it was Lum Berries. I refused the offer, so I don't know for a fact).**

**Anyways, so ends SL #001. For those who saw the advertisement in some of my other stories, I hope this was worth the wait.**

**Same as in SE/SA/SR, be sure to check my profile (after reviewing) to read the news updates for SE/SA/SR/SL.**


	2. Regional Chase

**Segment: Black & White.**

* * *

Chapter 2: Regional Chase

April 21, Village Bridge, 12 pm…

"B – Black…"

"… Miss President…"

The two Unova Dex Holders simply stared each other at the unexpected encounter. Black looked at the waitress clothes White was wearing, realizing then why he was unsuccessful with his queries. White changed her clothes therefore Black's description of her attire was incorrect. The girl seems to have noticed and looked even more embarrassed and ashamed.

"D – Don't look at me!" she cried out as she used her apron to cover her face. She started to tremble as tears fell from her eyes. She had tried so hard to avoid being seen, avoid people she knew, and hide somewhere where she wouldn't be judged. But now, she couldn't stay anymore.

"Miss President, I came to s-"

"Stop calling me that!"

Black approached her and tried to lower the apron so that he could see her face. But White turned away and started to flee.

"Miss President, wait!" Black yelled as he ran after her.

Black chased White out of the café and away from the bridge. Maybe it was because of the shoes she was wearing, or maybe because of some other factors, White couldn't really run. Black caught up with her within a minute.

"Please, Black… just leave me alone," White begged quietly. She still refused to look at him and kept her head down.

"Come on, Miss President. You c-"

"And stop calling me that…"

"You're the one who insisted that I call you that when we first met, remember?" Black said nicely. He slowly led her towards the river and sat on the grass next to it.

White reluctantly sat beside him. She hugged her knees and buried her face into her arms. "Times change…" she mumbled quietly.

"Okay then, Miss Pr… I mean, _White_, why didn't you tell me what was happening?"

White started to tremble as she fought off the urge to cry. But she soon lost the battle and burst into tears. Black started to panic and put a hand on her shoulder to try to get her to stop. But White turned away from him completely.

"Just… just leave me be…"

But Black didn't give up so easily. He moved around her and crouched directly in front of her. He rubbed her shoulders gently with both hands. Noticing that White wasn't crying as much now, Black gently lifted her chin so that he could finally look into her eyes. Their eyes met for a split second before White looked away again. In that split second, Black saw enough.

"Miss Pr… _White_, when was the last time you slept?" The girl didn't reply, so Black asked again. "And when was the last time you ate a proper meal?"

"I – I… had 8 hours of sleep in total since the first lawsuit," White muttered. "And I've been eating… a single slice of bread since then."

'_No wonder you couldn't run…_' "But… why?"

White buried her face into her arms again. "I can't sleep… and I don't feel like eating anything."

Black sat beside her again. "I understand. I guess it won't make much sense if you're able to sleep properly with all this stuff going on."

"Black… I really don't want to talk," White muttered quietly. "I just want to be left alone."

"Miss President, this is for your own good," Black said resolutely. "I spent all of yesterday searching just about every city in Unova looking for you. And as your friend, I am not going to stop until you're back to normal!"

White sighed as she rose to her feet. "… You really are a great friend, Black…" She suddenly turned to face him and Black could see that she had a Pokéball in her hand. "But I don't deserve to have you as a friend."

Before Black could even jump to his feet, White had already sent out her Solosis. "Miss President, what are you doing?!"

White closed her eyes and looked away. "I'm so sorry, Black… Yunibo, Psychic…"

The Cell Pokémon hesitated slightly but did as told. Black tried to withstand the power of Psychic seemingly tearing through his head but couldn't and soon passed out. Once the Unova Dex Holder hit the ground, White returned her Solosis. She wiped away her tears and kneeled in front of Black.

"I'm really sorry, Black… I know you're only trying to help," she sobbed out. "But I can't have you waste your time on me any more than you already have. You have your dream to fulfill. I don't have any dreams or goals anymore. There's no point in trying." White leaned forward and hugged her friend's unconscious body. "I'm sorry I had to hurt you. But maybe now you'll stop looking for me and let me vanish from the world quietly…" She didn't bother wiping away her tears as she rose to her feet. "Good bye, Black. And please take care of yourself."

White then sent out her Vullaby and held onto it as it flew up. But because of her distress, she failed to notice that she dropped something important when she pulled out the Pokéball containing the Solosis.

Black woke up several hours later in a daze. He put a hand on his head and groaned.

"What… where…" he muttered as he slowly sat up. His memories came back little by little and he was wide awake. "Did… did Miss President really attack me?" As he thought, he could remember what White was saying to him when he was still barely conscious.

Black jumped up to his feet and shook away the drowsiness. "Miss President," he said quietly. "I don't believe that you lost all of your dreams. I'll always be your friend and as such, I will _never_ allow you to vanish from the world. I will set everything right!"

He reached into his bag and pulled out his Braviary's Pokéball. He was about to send his Pokémon out when he saw something on the ground. He crouched in front and observed it. It appeared to be a plane ticket of some sort… Black examined the ticket and soon realized that it was White's. It seemed that the girl was trying to leave Unova, and would have been successful if she had not dropped her ticket.

Black pocketed the ticket and sent out his Braviary. "Brav, let's go to Mistralton City."

…

Mistralton City, 6:00 pm…

…

It was raining hard in Mistralton, and it made Black wish that he had an umbrella. But at the same time, he became more worried about White. She didn't have an umbrella. She didn't have enough rest _and_ she was undernourished from starving herself. And given how she would probably be avoiding buildings as much as possible, she would be exposed to the rain, and most likely end up getting a cold.

In the city, Black did what he did all day yesterday: ask around the entire city for White. This time, he focused on the airport and the Gym directly beside it. But again, his search yielded no results. But his efforts weren't entirely in vain.

As Black stood by the airport with a blank look, Skyla approached him from the landing strip, after completing a delivery.

"Black, I think I saw your friend walking in Route 7," said the Mistralton Gym Leader.

"Really?"

"I'm pretty sure. The rain kind of hindered my sight, but I'm pretty sure that it was White walking there."

"Well, thank you. I'll go check it out," Black said as he hastily ran towards Route 7.

He arrived at the route a couple of minutes later and began looking around. But finding White was easier said than done thanks to the tall (very tall) grass. Perhaps the raised walkways all over the route would provide better vi… wait…

Black stared at one of the raised walkways. He could see White walking on the narrow walkway, with her arms stretched out to maintain balance. She had ditched her waitress attire, which was why Black's inquiries have failed once again. Black quickly and silently approached her from below. He was soon directly beneath her and he could see her expression. White was staring directly ahead with a blank look and she appeared as if she had absolutely no worries or cares in the world. But at the same time, it appeared that she had nothing to live for either.

"Miss President!" Black yelled from below, trying his best not to surprise her. He would not be helping White at all if he surprised her so much that she fell off the 3-meter high walkway.

White sighed. She still stared blankly ahead as she carelessly balanced herself. "So… you found me again…" she muttered quietly, barely audible through the pounding rain.

"What are you doing up there?" Black asked.

"The cool wind," White muttered. "And no ground beneath my feet… It feels so… refreshing. It's as if I'm all alone in the world. It's… relieving…" She took a deep breath. She appeared so sad… "Stop looking for me, Black, and just… go away…"

"Miss President, I will never stop looking for you until you're back to normal!" Black yelled.

"I thought I told you to stop calling me that."

"The truth is the truth, Miss President. You were once the president of the BW Agency and thereby my boss, and you will always remain as such in my perspective."

"… You were always stubborn, Black…" White said after another sigh. "Because of you, I have to stay in this region…"

"Even if you managed to leave Unova, I'll still follow you," Black said without hesitation.

"Why are you doing this?" White asked almost in a whimper. "I told you I want to be left alone. I want to forget about the world and for the world to forget me. But what do you want from me?"

"I want the cheerful and happy Miss President that I first met," Black answered. "I want the Miss President who always did her absolute best to maintain her company's good reputation, even if it meant she lost money. I want the same Miss President who devoted all of her time and effort into achieving her dreams, _not_ the girl who wants to hide from everyone and everything that has happened!"

"That White is dead, Black!" White yelled rather angrily. "She's dead! The people who she spent her entire life helping killed her!"

"What do you mean?"

"I… I saw the news articles," White said with a sob. "They took out all the stuff that happened after the fourth lawsuit… The four lawsuits aren't what bankrupted me, Black… After the lawsuits, I… I tried to find some filming clients to get the company back on track. But every city I visited, I couldn't find any clients at all. Instead, every city had a large group of people who wanted full refunds for participating in some of the programs a long time ago. They threatened to sue if they didn't get the refund. I had to borrow money from the bank to pay for the lawsuits… there was no way I could handle the refunds. But they didn't care…"

"What about the Pokémon Musical?" Black asked. "Don't you receive constant payments from those?"

White wiped away the mix of tears and rainwater from her eyes. "Haven't you been to Nimbasa City? The Musical is no more."

Black looked surprised. The Musical Hall was awfully quiet when he visited the city of entertainment, but he just figured that the Musical wasn't active that day. He didn't realize that it was closed permanently…

"So… that café in Village Bridge," Black started. "Were you…"

"I had to close the BW Agency completely. I didn't have any money left and going into a city to find another job wasn't going to help me. But I still needed another job to pay off my debts. So I went to the quietest place in all of Unova where no one would judge me or demand a refund…"

"And that plane ticket?"

"I had to get out of Unova…" White muttered. She suddenly looked at Black and screamed at him. "Do you know how degrading it was for me to work there?! Do you know how embarrassing and humiliating it is to fall from being the president of a well known agency to a mere _waitress_ in a quiet bridge?!"

Black looked at her face and saw the tears streaming from her eyes. He then realized exactly how much shock and emotional pain White had received in the past few days. He could understand why she wanted to disappear completely.

"But… Miss President, why didn't you tell me all of this before?" Black asked. "I mean… I am your friend. If you needed any support, I would've gladly helped out."

White looked away from him. "I – I didn't want you to see me like this. I didn't want you to see how much I've fallen. But… you found me in Village Bridge. You have no idea how ashamed I was when you saw me dressed as a waitress…"

"You know I'd never treat you differently just because you're having a hard time nowadays. I mean… we're friends, right?"

White started to tremble even more than she did before. "E – Even right now… I can't stand it… I – I can't stand it! Please, stop looking at me!"

This time, Black did as she wished. He looked away from her in hopes that she'll feel less ashamed. "I think I understand why you feel so ashamed, but… there's really no need to. You'll always be my friend, and friends should always treat each other as they have since they first met, regardless of their status."

"Black… please. If… if you care about me at all, you'll just… let me go…"

"I do care about you," Black said as he turned to look at her again. "Which is why I can't let you go like this. I'm going to help you get back to your feet."

"It's too late," White sobbed out. "Please… don't waste any more time on me like this. Go fulfill your dreams and forget about me. The more time you waste on me instead of using them for your goals, more ashamed I'm going to be. My life is already ruined. I don't want to ruin yours as well."

Before Black could say anything, White purposely tilted her body to one side so she would fall off the elevated walkway. Black quickly dashed forward to catch her, but she disappeared into the thick, tall grass before he reached her.

"Miss President!" Black yelled as he ran into the thick grass that was taller than he was. "Are you okay? Where are you?"

Suddenly, something big shot out of the tall grass in front of him and knocked him off his feet. Black quickly rolled back up to his feet and looked at where the object went. He realized that the object was actually a Vullaby and… White was holding onto it.

Black started to run through the thick grass to get out into the open again. He had to chase White once again. But just before he could get out of the thick grass, a wild Pokémon jumped at him. A wild Foongus, it seemed.

"Get out of the way, you stupid mushroom!" Black yelled angrily. "I don't have time for this!" The Foongus seemed highly offended by the remark and looked very upset. It tried to use Stun Spore and Black had to jump backwards to avoid. The Unova Dex Holder sent out his Emboar. "Heat Crash!"

Once the Foongus was turned into a flattened burnt crisp (not literally), Black sent out his Braviary. But in that brief fight (in which the Foongus wasn't really contributing), White and her Vullaby were long gone. Black didn't give up and got his Braviary to carry him and head towards the general direction of where White had gone.

…

Castelia City, 7:00 pm…

…

Black landed on the roof of a tall building. White was sitting on the ledge, staring blankly ahead. The wind was strong, but neither Unova Dex Holder seemed to care. Black approached White and carefully sat beside her.

"You stopped running away," he said after a sigh of relief.

"I'm tired, Black," White muttered quietly. "I can't run anymore. Barbara's too tired too. It can't carry me to another city."

"Miss President, come with me to Nuvema Town," Black offered. "We'll figure something out together. But you need to rest up and start eating again. And trust me, no one in Nuvema Town will judge you or demand a refund. It's very quiet and you'll like it there."

White sighed. "I don't know…"

"And besides. You do need a shoulder to cry on, right?" Black said almost in a taunting manner. He quickly rephrased his statement, realizing his mistake. "You feel you're alone and you think that you want to be left alone, but deep inside, I'm sure you want company. And I'll stay with you and I'll never leave you. You'll never feel alone, I promise." Black offered a hand. White looked at it hesitantly. "What do you say, Miss President?"

"I don't really have a choice, now do I?" White asked after another sigh. "I can't run away anymore. Even if I could, you'll still chase me all over Unova. There's no way I could evade you."

"Does that mean you'll come to Nuvema with me?" Black asked hopefully.

White slowly nodded. "Yes…" She put her hand on Black's and looked at him for a split second. "I will…"

"Great! Let's get going, then!" Black exclaimed happily.

He carefully moved off of the ledge and pulled White back to safety. He then sent out his Braviary once again. Black got his Braviary to carry him while White simply got onto it, as her Vullaby wasn't able to carry her to another town. The Braviary soon took off and headed towards Nuvema Town.

As they flew, Black spotted a green dinosaur like Pokémon with a long neck and four wings, carrying two people.

'_Huh… I never saw a Pokémon like that before,_' Black thought as he eyed the Pokémon and the two people (a boy and a girl) riding it. '_I wonder where it came from…_'

Black shook the thought away, as it wasn't important. He glanced up at White to ensure that she was doing okay. The girl had her eyes closed and was resting her head against the Braviary. Black let out a long sigh of relief. Everything was going to be okay now.

From on top of the Braviary, White had a similar thought. For the first time in a long while, she actually felt hope that everything will turn out okay. She even felt a little stupid for evading Black for all this time when she knew that he would comfort her. Despite still having the heavy burden of the debt and the nightmarish memories of losing her company, due to the newfound comfort and hope, White fell asleep for the first time in days…

* * *

**Okay… the first two SL chapters were based around Black and White, so… the next chapter will be the start of another segment featuring a different batch of Dex Holders. Perhaps this'll be a nice change of mood from the depressing BW segment, although the depressing part seems to be over already. Expect another quick update as the next chapter is almost complete.**


	3. Candidates

**It seems that the little Ruby/Sapphire cameo at the end of the last chapter gave thoughts that SL #003 would be the start of the RS segment. That is incorrect, I'm afraid. The cameo is to set the start of RS segment at a later date. SL #003 is the start of the DPt segment.**

**Segment: Diamond & Platinum.**

* * *

Chapter 3: Candidates

April 21, Sandgem Town, 12 pm…

Diamond and Pearl followed the old butler Sebastian as he led them towards the main guest room in the massive Berlitz Mansion. Platinum had invited the two boys over, saying that she would appreciate their company during a special event she had to participate in. Diamond and Pearl didn't know what she meant, but they weren't going to refuse the invitation. Once the door to the main guest 'room' (felt more like an entire house), they saw Platinum sitting on a chair with a bored expression. The heiress looked over and upon spotting her two friends, beamed in joy.

"Diamond! Pearl! I am glad you two could come!" she said happily as she ran over towards them.

"Hey, Miss Lady. What are you doing in this room?" Pearl asked after a friendly wave.

"I have been-" Platinum was interrupted by a servant who appeared in the doorway to the guest room.

"My Lady, your tenth suitor has arrived."

Platinum sighed. "Thank you. But I do believe that the term 'suitor' is inappropriate for this situation."

"Suitor? What's going on?" Diamond asked, managing to hide his surprise and horror.

Platinum sighed again as she sat down on her chair. "My mother wishes for me to go on dates, and numerous people who are… interested have come already. It is my duty today to personally see those candidates and determine whether I like him or not. But this event has been terribly boring. I did not like this idea to begin with but I cannot disobey my mother. As such, I have invited you two over to accompany me."

Diamond felt his stomach lurch at the thought of seeing Platinum go on a date with someone. He felt terrible dread, afraid that he waited too long in trying to win the heiress's heart and that someone else may beat him to her. But Diamond still couldn't tell Platinum how he felt, as he was afraid that the heiress may not like him back. He simply stood beside her along with Pearl and stared ahead with a blank look.

Platinum straightened her skirt and indicated that she was ready to meet her 10th 'suitor'. The door opened and a tall boy entered. He introduced himself as the son of the president of the Pokétch company, and claimed that he personally designed Platinum's Pokétch. A blatant lie and all 3 Sinnoh Dex Holders knew it. The heir knelt in front of Platinum and took her hand. Diamond closed his eyes, unable to watch such a wretched scene. He wished that he was deaf when he heard the heir starting to deliver all sorts of compliments.

Pearl glanced at Platinum's face and realized that her expression was stone cold. It became evident when the heir tried to kiss her hand. Platinum pulled her hand back and politely refused the offer of seeing him ever again. Though her words were kind, Diamond and Pearl have been with her long enough to know that her voice and tone were as harsh as she could possibly manage.

Once the heir left with a sullen expression, Platinum let out a sigh in relief. Diamond also let out a quiet sigh of relief.

"So Miss Lady, what was so bad about that guy?" Pearl asked.

"I have seen his interviews a few times on television," Platinum replied. "And believe me. A _Magikarp_ would have higher brainpower than him."

"Ouch," Pearl muttered. "Hey, this is kind of fun. Miss Lady, if the next guy isn't to your liking and he tries to kiss your hand, could you slap him for us?"

Platinum looked surprised at the request. "You… wish me to hurt the next visitor?"

"Yeah. It'd be very fun to watch, and it'll feel good for you too. But only if he's invading your personal space. Because then, you'll have every right to slap the hell out of him."

"If… if you believe he deserves it, then…"

The next heir (from the Sinnoh branch of Devon Corporation) immediately tried to kiss Platinum's hand. The heiress was slightly hesitant at first, but managed to slap him across the face. The next 'suitor' was no different, and ended up being slapped by Platinum.

"Pearl, you are right. It is fun," she said with a happy smile. She then rotated the diamond on her ring so that it would come in contact with the next visitor's face should he trigger Platinum's desire to slap him.

Pearl saw the position of the diamond ring and grimaced. '_Perhaps that's a __**little**__ extreme… Oh well…_'

But the next 'suitor' was very different. He was the heir of another wealthy family, and appeared to be very well mannered. He gave Platinum a formal bow and introduction and kept his eyes on hers at all times (instead of drifting towards her skirt). Unlike his predecessors, he respected Platinum's personal space and offered only the classiest compliments.

An alarm went off in Diamond's mind and he examined his 'rival'. The heir was kind of tall and statuesque, appeared very intelligent, and (Diamond hated to admit it) _very_ good looking. The Sinnoh Dex Holder glanced at Platinum and she, too, appeared impressed. Her cheeks started to turn red from the barrage of clever compliments…

Diamond felt as if his world was falling apart when the heir offered Platinum a dinner date. He then felt as if those pieces all exploded when the heiress _accepted_ the offer. Once the heir left, Platinum looked over at Pearl with excitement all over her face.

"Wow… I did not expect to meet anyone like him today."

"That's great, Miss Lady. I'm really happy for you," Pearl said with a smile. "Right, Dia?" he said as he looked over at Diamond. "… Dia?"

Platinum looked over at Diamond and noticed that he appeared rather… sick. She instantly became extremely worried, as he appeared to be on the verge of hyperventilation.

"Diamond, what is the matter?"

"Yeah, Dia. What's wrong?" Pearl asked.

"I – I don't know," Diamond lied. "It might've been something I ate."

"I shall go get a doctor at once," Platinum said as she hastily headed towards the door.

"No!" Diamond yelled out. "I'll be fine… I think I'll just… go home now. Have fun with your date, Lady, and I'll… uh… see you later…"

Platinum tried to stop him and insist that he sees a doctor immediately, but Diamond left anyways. Pearl followed so that he may find out what was actually going on. Platinum contemplated in following as well, but decided against eavesdropping on her friends. Instead, she went up to her room so that she may see them through the windows.

"Alright Dia, what's wrong?" Pearl asked once Diamond stopped near the Pokémon Center. "And don't tell me it's because of what you ate. We both ate the same thing and I'm perfectly fine here. And don't say you're allergic because you've been eating the same food for years now."

Diamond buried his face in his arm leaning against a tree and began pounding the tree with his other fist. "The Lady's going on a date with someone…"

"Yeah. And you should be very happy for her since she's your friend," Pearl said. A thought occurred and he appeared rather surprised. "Unless… … Oh boy…" He let out a sigh and ran his hand through his hair. "You like Miss Lady, don't you? That's why you're acting like this now that she has a date…"

"I just… can't believe it."

Pearl paced around a little with his arms crossed. "Alright Dia, no… Diamond, since when did you like Miss Lady?"

"Since we first met," Diamond said slowly.

"Ah, so it's that 'love at first sight' stuff. And I assume you didn't tell her, correct?"

Diamond nodded. "I couldn't tell her…"

"Alright, so you're acting like this because you think that you're going to lose her to someone else." Pearl sighed again. "What a messy problem… Miss Lady doesn't know you like her, you're too… nervous to tell her directly, and she's too oblivious to find out for herself. Great…"

"So… What am I going to do?"

"I'm thinking that you have… 3 choices. The first one is that you go to Miss Lady and tell her right now that you love her. I'd say it's the best choice because it takes the least amount of time and effort. The second choice is that we take her on a journey somewhere. That'll take her away from potential date candidates and you'll have ample time to tell her how you feel. And there will be plenty of times when you're alone with her and she may figure out that you like her on her own. The third choice is that you back off today, let Miss Lady enjoy her date, hope that she doesn't like the other guy, and look for another opportunity. That's probably the worst choice here because it's riddled with uncertainties. Pick one or you're kind of screwed, buddy. You can't sulk forever, you know."

Diamond sighed as he thought for a while. Eventually he made up his mind and spoke. "Your first choice seems too hasty and the third choice seems too… slow. I think the second choice is the best course of action."

"Great. Then this is what we're going to do…"

From her mansion, Platinum watched her two friends, concerned about Diamond. She believed what Diamond had said, as she knew that her friends wouldn't lie to her anymore. And watching Diamond from afar, Platinum determined that he was suffering from food poisoning. But just to be sure…

Platinum soon left her mansion and ran towards her friends. Diamond and Pearl stopped talking when she came close and looked at her in surprise.

"Diamond," Platinum said with visible concern. "Please go to a doctor. I believe you may have food poisoning."

"No, no… I think I'll be alright," Diamond replied with a smile.

The heiress did not look convinced at all. "You appear to have been crying. Are you certain that you will be alright?"

"He'll be fine," Pearl said. "He's like a Snorlax. No matter what he eats, he won't get sick. Not for long, anyways."

Platinum smiled at the reference. "If you say so."

"Miss Lady, do you remember a year ago in Solaceon Town when we were taking care of that Phione?"

"Yes, of course."

"And you remember hearing about that Gold guy?" Pearl asked.

"Ah yes. The one whose personalities were passed down to the Pokémon he was hatching. Yes, I remember hearing about him."

"What do you say that we all go over to Johto and find him? It'd be fun," Pearl suggested. "We'll be traveling all around Johto, like the old times when we traveled around Sinnoh."

"You could challenge the Gyms there," Diamond added.

Platinum looked very interested. "Oh, that does sound very fun. When do you suggest we leave?"

"How about tomorrow at noon?" Pearl asked. "You do have that date of yours today."

Platinum nodded. "Okay, tomorrow then. I shall wait for you here and we will go to Canalave City together."

Once the heiress waved at her friends goodbye and returned to her mansion, Diamond looked at Pearl with a begging look.

"Pearl… if the Lady really likes her date tonight, I'm done for. So… could you make sure that it doesn't happen?"

"You want me to… sabotage Miss Lady's date?" Pearl asked in surprise. "I can't do that! If she sees me, she'll kill me!"

"Please, Pearl. I can't lose her!"

Pearl groaned. "Fine… though technically, you can't lose her seeing how you never got her to begin with. But if she spots me, I'm blaming you."

…

6 hours later…

…

Pearl waited inside the Pokémon Center and looked through the windows at the Berlitz Mansion. Platinum's date arrived soon and the door to the Berlitz Mansion opened. Platinum appeared in the doorway, wearing a beautiful dress. Seeing her so happy, Pearl became hesitant in carrying out his plans to sabotage her date. But he had to sabotage the date for Diamond…

Pearl sighed. '_How the hell did I get mixed up in this?_'

As a result, in a way to comply with both of his friends' best wishes, Pearl decided to watch from afar and simply… test Platinum's date. If the heir proves his worth through the secret tests, then Pearl would back off and see what happens. If the heir turns out to be a complete jerk then Platinum would surely cancel the date and Pearl wouldn't have to do anything.

With his plan in mind, Pearl secretly followed Platinum and her date as they headed towards the best restaurant in Sandgem Town. Either the heir was cheap and didn't want to go to Jubilife for the date, or he had planned something in Sandgem…

Pearl sent out his Diglett and Buizel and got them to secretly create a large puddle of mud in the path of Platinum and her date. That would be the first test of character.

Platinum and her date soon arrived in front of the large mud puddle. The heiress looked left and right, wondering how exactly she was going to cross without ruining her good shoes.

"My Lady, perhaps you should use me as a method of transportation," said the heir.

"I beg your pardon?" Platinum asked in confusion.

"If I may carry you, you will be able to cross this obstacle without any concern," the heir replied.

Platinum blushed in embarrassment but didn't say anything. As such, the heir lifted her onto his arms and began crossing the mud puddle. Pearl observed the two from afar and figured that the heir had passed his first test. Now, on to the second test…

Pearl followed the two to the restaurant. Though he wasn't able to follow them _into_ the building (reservation required), he was able to see them through the windows (from a distance). Once Platinum and her date sat at a table and ordered their dinner, Pearl moved into action. He sent out his Infernape to pick up a small rock and take position by one of the open windows.

Pearl soon gave the signal and the Infernape threw the small rock through the open windows and onto the floor of the restaurant. A waiter carrying hot tea stepped on the rock and stumbled, spilling the tea onto Platinum's date.

"I – I am terribly sorry, sir," the waiter stammered out.

"That is quite alright," the heir said nicely as he tried to wipe away the tea with the towel he took from the waiter. "Just make sure that it does not happen again."

Pearl observed Platinum's expression and realized that his sabotage attempt had done the exact opposite of what it was supposed to do. The heiress seemed even more impressed with the gentle nature of her date… But the tests were far from over.

…

3 hours later, 9:30 pm…

…

Pearl grumbled silently as he tailed Platinum and her date from a distance. He tried sabotaging the date 4 more times and each attempt had failed miserably. He even tried setting off the fire alarm in the restaurant (by sending his Chatot to pull the fire alarm so that he wouldn't have to set the building on fire) to see if it roused any panic (and thereby cowardice) from the heir, but with no avail. The heir had calmly led Platinum out of the restaurant and headed into another one to continue their date. So now, as Pearl followed the two who were going for a nice after-meal walk, he was thinking of what to say to Diamond to report mission failure.

'_Should I just tell him that Miss Lady's date is actually a great guy? Should I tell him that Miss Lady's happy now?_'

Pearl snapped out of his thoughts when he heard some yelling from ahead. He took cover behind a nearby tree and looked ahead to see what the commotion was about. Platinum and her date were surrounded by 3 (probably drunk) thugs, who appeared to be mugging them for money. Pearl reached into his bag for his Infernape's Pokéball, but decided to wait a little to see what the heir would do. If Diamond was in that situation, he would probably stay between Platinum and the thugs, protecting the heiress at all costs. But right now, it appeared that the heir was… behind Platinum…

Pearl frowned and focused on his hearing. Surely the heir wasn't _hiding_ behind Platinum… Could he be protecting her in case one of the thugs attacked from behind? Surely the heir would be doing _something_ heroic seeing how he was such a gentleman throughout the night.

"Take the girl if you wish but let me go!" the heir yelled out.

The hasty Dex Holder groaned. He had spent so much effort trying to find a flaw in the heir and all his effort had been pointless. As it turned out, he didn't even need to do anything. If he had known that the heir would turn his tail at the slightest sign of danger… Pearl shook his head. So much for heroism… He quickly took out his Infernape's Pokéball seeing how the heir pushed Platinum towards the thugs and fled, leaving the girl to fend for herself. Platinum appeared horrified and even terrified. She wasn't carrying any Pokéballs and the sudden betrayal from her (otherwise perfect) cowardly date was all too shocking.

Platinum eyed the three thugs nervously as she tried her best to maintain some distance from them. The thugs started to reach towards her and she swatted their hands away. Just as she was about to scream for help, she saw Pearl running closer in her peripheral vision.

The hasty Dex Holder sent out his Tauros and Infernape to intimidate the thugs. But he had to get close enough so that the two Pokémon would appear right next to Platinum, otherwise the thugs might take her hostage. Platinum seemed to relax significantly now that she was surrounded by her close friend's Pokémon. The thugs soon fled in terror, allowing Pearl to successfully rescue Platinum without any problems whatsoever.

"Miss Lady, are you okay?" he asked once he returned his Pokémon after ensuring the thugs were long gone.

Platinum suddenly hugged him. "Yes. Thank you for saving me Pearl."

Pearl was surprised at the sudden embrace but soon patted her on the back to comfort her. "Uh… everything's okay now, Miss Lady."

Platinum pulled back and timidly thanked him again. She kept her eyes on his and smiled nervously. Pearl stared at her expression carefully, wondering why she was looking at him like that. Her cheeks were starting to turn red… Soon everything made sense and he groaned inwardly.

'_Uh oh… Is this that 'falling in love with the hero' thing? Ah, crap… today's just not going according to plan…_'

* * *

**Note: the ending was done rather hastily and wrapped up quickly in order to ensure that no SL chapter is exceedingly long. The aim is to keep every SL chapter between 3000 and 3500 words (this ignores notes).**


	4. Predicament

**Segment: Diamond & Platinum.**

* * *

Chapter 4: Predicament

April 21, Sandgem Town, 9:40 pm…

'_All the times Dia saved Miss Lady, she doesn't notice anything, but like the __**one time**__ I save her, she falls in love? That's crap,_' Pearl grumbled in his mind as he looked at Platinum starting to blush.

"Pearl, I cannot thank you enough for saving me," the heiress said sheepishly.

'_Oh, yes you can._' "Oh, it was nothing," Pearl said as he thought of a plan.

Platinum appeared a little suspicious. "But Pearl, what are you doing here in Sandgem? I thought you were home in Twinleaf."

'_Yes, opportunity!_' Pearl thought excitedly as he formulated a plan to try to steer Platinum's heart towards Diamond.

"Were you… worried about me?" the heiress asked nervously as she blushed again.

'_Crap, crap, crap! If I say yes, Dia's done for. If I say no, Miss Lady will be hurt!_' "Uh… yes," Pearl answered reluctantly. "But Dia's even more worried. He was the one who wanted me to check up on you and make sure you were doing okay."

Platinum appeared slightly annoyed. "So… Diamond sent you here to spy on me?"

"No, no, no," Pearl said hastily. "He just wanted to make sure that you weren't in any danger. And seeing how you _were_ in danger, I'd say that he had very good insight."

But unfortunately, the heiress appeared even more upset. "So he expected me to encounter trouble, as if I am some sort of a trouble magnet." Pearl mentally slapped a hand onto his face. Platinum ignored his silence and continued. "So Diamond expected me to fall into danger, but yet he did not come here himself and sent you instead. Does he not care about me at all?"

Pearl silently groaned. He decided to try something different. All of his attempts to let Platinum know that Diamond really cared for her have backfired. So… if he was to do the exact opposite, _theoretically_, Platinum would start liking Diamond! … Right?

"Well, he doesn't care about you _that_ much," Pearl said sarcastically.

Unfortunately, the reverse effect didn't seem to occur and Platinum appeared rather hurt. "Oh… I see…"

'_Sh*t… Oh, come on! Can't you see that Dia really likes you, you stupid unbelievably smart girl?!_' Pearl thought rather angrily. "I was being sarcastic!" he said hastily. "Dia really cares about you. He only sent me here because he was afraid that he wouldn't be able to make the best choices."

Platinum nodded, but didn't seem fully convinced. "At any rate, you were the one who saved me tonight. And as such, I must reward you properly. I would highly appreciate it if you stayed the night in my home. I would not be thanking you if I let you return home all alone this late at night."

Realizing that he could not win the argument against the (somewhat stubborn) oblivious brilliant girl, Pearl gave in to her request. As long as he wasn't forced to share a room with her, there wouldn't be any problems whatsoever. And seeing how the Berlitz Mansion was massive, there would be absolutely no chance of him being forced to share a room with her (after all, Platinum herself had like… 7 rooms).

20 minutes later, in the massive Berlitz Mansion, Pearl stood with a slightly embarrassed look as the butler of the Berlitz family overly thanked him for saving Platinum. The heiress's parents seemed very relieved and happy as well. Pearl showed as much modesty as he could so that he doesn't look like a jerk to his friend's parents. Platinum seemed to like him even more, which was a bad thing. He didn't really like her in that sense, and wanted to keep her as a close friend, nothing more, nothing less.

On the plus side, Pearl had front-row seats as he watched Sir Berlitz yell at the father of his daughter's date (via picture phone), for the heir's spineless act that almost seriously harmed Platinum. The exchange was hilarious in Pearl's perspective and got even better when Platinum's date appeared on screen and received a hell of a scolding from all the adults. The heir tried to say something to Platinum but the heiress turned away from him and hugged Pearl (to his surprise). The rest of the phone call wasn't interesting. The father of the heir agreed to send Platinum a gift as compensation, and that was it.

Later that night, Pearl simply lied on his bed in one of the massive guest rooms, wondering how the hell he was going to tell Diamond what happened. He couldn't not tell him either, as Diamond was probably waiting to hear the results. With a long sigh, Pearl took his Pokégear and called Diamond.

"Pearl? What happened?" came Diamond's anxious voice after the phone ringed exactly once.

"Uh… Dia, listen," Pearl started nervously. "The date sabotage didn't go as planned. At all. That heir guy was actually quite a gentleman during the date." Diamond didn't say anything, so he quickly added. "But Miss Lady hates him since he kind of… ditched her when they got mugged by 3 drunken guys _after_ the date."

"What?" came Diamond's extremely worried voice. "So what happened to the Lady? Is she okay?"

"Yeah. She's fine. I managed to save her just in time."

Diamond sighed in relief. "Oh, okay. That's good… thanks, Pearl. So where are you?"

"Uh… at Miss Lady's mansion. She said that she won't let me go home all by myself this late at night. She wants to thank me for saving her and her _prize_ is forcing me to stay at her place for the night."

"Oh. Okay," Diamond said. He didn't sound suspicious at all.

"So… Miss Lady and I will wait for you tomorrow near the Pokémon Center, alright? Miss Lady will probably call you in the morning to let you know when you should come. She's making reservations on a ship right now."

"Alright then. I'll see you tomorrow."

…

Next day, April 22, 7 am…

…

Platinum picked up her Pokégear and called Diamond. She didn't call him the previous night as she believed that he would be very sleepy. She wasn't sure whether he was awake at the moment, but decided to give him a call anyways. If he wasn't awake, then surely he would wake up from his Pokégear ringing.

"Hello?" came Diamond's tired voice a couple of rings later.

"Hello, Diamond," Platinum said cheerfully. "Good morning! I apologize for calling so early."

"No, that's alright," Diamond answered, sounding wide awake. "Lady, I heard what happened yesterday from Pearl. Are you alright?" he asked, his voice showing clear evidence of genuine concern.

Platinum smiled, happy that her friend cared for her. She accepted that Pearl's comment the previous night was indeed sarcasm and decided to forget about it. "Yes, I am doing perfectly fine. Thank you for your concern. Diamond, I am calling to let you know that the ship for Johto leaves Canalave City today at 1. And as such, I would appreciate it if you would come over as soon as possible. I wish to serve you breakfast today. After breakfast, we will slowly head over to Canalave on a carriage."

"Oh. Okay then. I'll leave right now. And you said that you'll be making the breakfast today? Would you want some help?"

"No, Diamond. I believe I am ready to make a full meal on my own. You have helped me so much but I do not think I am learning anything if you are there to continuously lead me. I think it would be a great experience for me to make breakfast on my own."

"Alright. I'll see you in a short while, Lady," Diamond said rather happily before hanging up.

Platinum put away her Pokégear and sat by a large table in the living room, staring at the calendar and a map of Kanto/Johto. She was going to try to figure out a schedule for the vacation/adventure. The servants of the Berlitz Mansion had gotten her the complete tourist's guide for Kanto and Johto, named _Walking in Kanto_ and _Walking in Johto_. The two must've been a part of a series along with her currently owned _Walking in Sinnoh_.

The heiress had finished reading the two new guides already and had memorized all of the important locations. There were a few things she didn't really understand about Kanto and Johto, namely… why there was no Gym Leader listed for the Mahogany Gym. Platinum simply figured that she would find out upon arriving at Johto.

As she glanced back and forth between the calendar and the map, Pearl came into view as he descended the stairs. Platinum gave him a very bright smile and ran over to him happily.

"Good morning, Pearl!" she greeted jovially.

"Uh… yeah. Good morning, Miss Lady," Pearl returned her greet. "You're awake early. Normally, you wake up half an hour after I do."

"I am excited for today," Platinum said happily. "The ship leaves Canalave City at 1 today. Once Diamond arrives, we will leave for the harbor on a carriage."

"A carriage?" Pearl muttered. '_Isn't that… small? Only two seats and each seat can carry exactly two people… oh… She wants to sit beside me, huh? Ah, crap… But maybe I can come up with some excuse to make her sit next to Dia. But… that's going to be awkward as hell…_' "Uh… Miss Lady, did you call Dia yet?"

Platinum nodded. "Yes, I have. He is on his way here. I am a little surprised that he was awake to answer my call, but I suspect that he is also excited about our new journey. Once he arrives, we will all have breakfast and then head for Canalave City." The heiress started to blush again as her eyes met Pearl's. "Pearl, I hope you enjoy the breakfast, as I will be making them personally. Diamond has taught me a lot about cooking and I am confident that I will be able to make delicious meals."

Pearl groaned inwardly. If he doesn't compliment Platinum's cooking, her feelings would probably get hurt. But if he _does_ compliment her, then she'd probably like him even more.

'_How the hell did I get in this mess?! And how do I get out?!_' the hasty Dex Holder thought to himself as he fought the urge to sigh.

Feeling the need to escape the awkward situation, he simply nodded at Platinum and headed towards the exit, claiming that he needed some fresh air. The heiress let him leave without any suspicion. She didn't follow him as she still needed to completely plan the schedule for the trip.

Pearl figured that being alone with Platinum in the mansion (well, apart from the unimportant people in this love matter) wouldn't be beneficial at all to Diamond. So until the relaxed Dex Holder could arrive, Pearl decided that he needed to avoid the heiress. Maybe he'd go to the nearest store and stock up on some supplies. He'll need his own compass and a map of Kanto/Johto, as he intended on leaving Diamond and Platinum alone upon arriving at the foreign region.

…

30 minutes later…

…

Diamond stepped off the bus in front of the station. He let out a long tired yawn, as he wasn't used to waking up so early in the morning. And he was starving too. But Platinum had told him that she would be serving him breakfast at her mansion, so he avoided eating anything (for once). And he couldn't handle starvation very well.

Upon leaving the bus station, he headed straight towards Platinum's home. He knew the streets to the mansion as well as the back of his hand. There was no way that he could miss it, even if he had his eyes closed. After all, he had been to the mansion countless times.

Once he arrived at the mansion's front gates, Diamond was led by the guards to the front door where a servant took over the escorting duties. Diamond followed the servant to the guest room, where Platinum was waiting.

"Hi, Lady," Diamond said with a warm smile, glad to see Platinum again.

The heiress appeared to be very happy to see him as well. Seeing her happy and bright smile made him equally happy. Platinum ran over to him and clasped his hands. Diamond started to blush and he began to believe that everything would turn out great.

"Diamond, I am so glad that you are here," Platinum said excitedly.

"Lady, you seem awfully happy," Diamond commented. "Did something good happen recently?"

Platinum nodded enthusiastically. "Yes. But Diamond, listen. There is something very important I must tell you," she started nervously.

"What is it?" Diamond asked.

"It is… um… not easy for me to say," Platinum stammered out as she started to blush. "But it is a secret of mine…"

'_Confession!_' Diamond thought as he perked up. '_It's finally happening!_'

His heart started to beat faster and faster and he felt as if his world (which had been metaphorically taped up after its initial shattering and destruction when Platinum accepted that date) was slowing down considerably, making Platinum's announcement seemingly unbearably slow. He didn't mind though, as he was way too excited to care.

But… the girl's actual announcement made him feel as if his held-together-with-tape world had been blown to hell by a magnetic accelerator cannon fired from a station in geosynchronous orbit.

"I… I think I am in love with Pearl…"

* * *

**This chapter's kind of short… Blame the storyline, as I **_**had**_** to stop at this point, or lose the best possible end-point.**

**Making a story that focuses on all 15 Dex Holders (perhaps soon to be 16, but I'll ignore that one until the BW2 arc progresses far enough) is quite hard. Either majority of them are shoved into the background while a few of them are put into main focus, or everyone gets equal yet insufficient focus/screen time. Already, SL has quite a few questions that need answering seeing how it only focuses on a small group of Dex Holders at a time. How's White doing in Nuvema Town, what are Ruby and Sapphire doing in Unova, how will Diamond handle Platinum's confession, what's a magnetic accelerator cannon, when will the Sinnoh and Johto storylines converge, when will the Kanto Dex Holders appear, etc.**

**You'll have to wait for the answer to the third question (though it's kind of obvious given the description), as SL #005 will be the start of another storyline. Is this sadistic? Kind of. You now have to wait approximately 8 chapters (if no faithful reviewers make a request) before you can find out what Diamond's reaction is. Similarly, you have to wait approximately 6 chapters before finding out how White's doing in Nuvema Town.**


	5. Solitude

**SL's main focus has changed once again. This time, to the original starting segment of Green & Blue. Yes, SL is going all over the place, but all the storylines WILL converge.**

**This chapter took quite a while to complete because I was trying to decide whether I should a) scrap the Kanto and Johto storylines entirely and keep only the Hoenn, Sinnoh, and Unova storylines for the sake of acceleration, or b) continue as originally planned. I picked… the second choice for now.**

**As this chapter was supposed to be the very first chapter of SL, its pace is… slower than the others.**

**Segment: Green & Blue.**

* * *

Chapter 5: Solitude

April 21, Pallet Town, 8 am…

Green sat on the chair in his room reading the news, like he did every morning. Sure, he was supposed to be at his Gym by 9 am and stay on duty until 10 pm or so, but there weren't any challengers. Or at least any challenger that was worth his attention. The only challengers were all so pitifully weak that even Yellow could beat them without her special ability triggered.

So nowadays, all Green did was travel to an isolated area and train. He came back home once every now and then, hoping that there would be something exciting waiting. Unfortunately, he had no such luck. The entire region of Kanto seemed to have nothing exciting to offer. Even the news was dull and boring. In fact, the only interesting news article of that day wasn't even based in Kanto, and it wasn't even all that interesting.

With a bored sigh, the Viridian Gym Leader started to read the article out loud (not loud enough to be heard outside his room).

"_The Pokémon Talents Company in the region of Unova known as the BW Agency is facing its fourth consecutive lawsuit within seven days from various trainers who claim that_…" Green sighed again and tossed the newspaper on the floor near the door. "Damn it, this is boring…" He rose to his feet and stared out through the open windows. "What should I do today? I could sleep like Yellow, but that's a horribly inefficient method of spending time. I could train like Red, but I've been doing that for the past year. How the hell can he train for 3 years without a vacation? Doesn't that guy ever get tired?"

Eventually, Green headed downstairs for breakfast, as he had finally made a decision. His decision was to… train. But luckily for him, when he arrived at the dinner table, there was something new waiting for him. Professor Oak was sipping coffee at the table, looking at an invitation card of some sort. When Green came to his vision, he waved at him and showed him the card.

"_You have been cordially invited to the wedding ceremony of Bill and Daisy_," Green read out. "So sis is getting married? When did that happen?"

"The ceremony is going to be held at May 5, so it clearly hasn't happened yet," Professor Oak started. "If you're wondering when Bill summoned the courage to propose to Daisy, that was back in February."

"Interesting," Green muttered. "Maybe I should give my future brother-in-law a visit and make sure he knows that he's lucky to have sis."

"Oh, I think he knows," the professor said with a chuckle. "I think he also knows that if he makes one mistake, he could end up in the obituaries."

Green smirked as he prepared his breakfast. Although he really would bury Bill alive if he treated Daisy wrong, he had decided a long time ago that he'd just let his sister and the ingenious Pokémon researcher/maniac sort out their issues on their own.

Half an hour later, once Green finished with his breakfast, Professor Oak gave him a folded sheet of paper.

"What's this?" the Viridian Gym Leader asked as he spread the sheet out.

"It's the list of desired wedding gifts," the professor replied. "As the bride's younger brother, you should definitely get her something nice. Of course, I'm going to buy gifts too, but since I'm quite busy, I sent one of my assistants to purchase them for me. So once you scare Bill, why don't you go over to Celadon City's Department Store?"

Green simply shrugged. He stored the list in his pocket and after finishing preparations (brushing teeth, etc), headed outside. With his Charizard, he headed straight towards Celadon City. He wanted to meet the assistant and see what his grandfather was getting.

Half an hour later, Green arrived at the department store. He soon began scanning around to see if there was anything that would catch his eye. There wasn't anyone that he recognized however, but there was someone covered by a huge box that she (clearly a girl given the visible portion of the lower body and the choice of attire) was trying to carry while maintaining balance. Green approached one of the clerks to see if he saw anyone who looked like an assistant to Professor Oak.

"Um… can anyone please help me?" asked the girl behind the huge box.

Green looked at the box and sighed. He might as well help out… He had no choice either. As a world-famous Dex Holder (or at least very famous within Kanto), if he was to refuse or ignore an assistance request, there would be… many problems arising from bored news editors and reporters. His reputation could plummet within days and he'd look like a complete jackass to everyone. Also, the girl's voice sounded quite familiar.

"Sure, why not," Green muttered as he lifted the other side of the box.

"Oh, thank you very much," the girl said after a short sigh of relief. "… Wait… you kind of sound familiar… Are you… Green?"

"And you are?" Green asked. "Don't tell me you're one of those annoying fans…"

The girl managed to peek around the box and looked at the Gym Leader. "It is you! Oh, it's so nice to see you again!" she exclaimed happily. Green slightly squinted, trying to see if he recognized the familiar looking girl. The girl had bright blue eyes and dark blue hair that was tied and bent upwards into two side tails. That hairstyle seemed awfully familiar… Same with those star earrings… Seeing him battling his memories, the girl decided to give him a helping hand. "It's me, Crys! Don't you recognize me?"

Thanks to her help, Green instantly remembered. '_Crys? Oh, right…_' "Crystal…"

Half an hour later, Green found himself looking over at his junior across a small table at a café. The Viridian Gym Leader had sent his Charizard and Scizor to transport the huge gift box to Pallet Town. He was sure that they could handle it. If not, then clearly, the two Pokémon weren't fit to be in his team. A harsh reality…

"It's really nice to see you again," Crystal said with a happy smile. She took a sip of iced tea. "But don't tell me you didn't recognize me back at the store! I know it's been a while since we last met, but…"

"You did seem familiar," Green said.

"But you didn't remember my name, right?" Crystal asked with a slightly hurt expression. "I guess that's what happens if I don't see you for a year…"

The two Dex Holders sat in awkward silence for a short while before Green spoke up.

"So Crystal, how is everyone else?"

Crystal sighed. "I don't really know. The only ones I see on a regular basis are Gold and Emerald. Why is it that the Dex Holders only communicate with each other during a crisis? I think we should have some sort of a routine gathering once a while so we can keep in touch."

"Hmm… that could turn out to be interesting," Green muttered. "It would be nice to see how much everyone has changed."

"I guess before we start the whole Dex Holder meetings, we should catch up first," Crystal suggested. "So… what have you been up to?"

"Nothing," Green answered shortly.

"You're not… going to share anything?" Crystal asked, rather surprised. Her expression darkened slightly, under the impression that her senior didn't trust her.

Green thought for a second. "I would share if there anything _to_ share. I've been training for the past year and nothing else."

"Oh," the Johto Dex Holder muttered. Her expression brightened again and she smiled. "I guess I'm not the only one doing nothing interesting."

Green raised an eyebrow. "Aren't you doing research for my grandfather? I never expected you to say that research isn't interesting."

"Well… I meant I wasn't doing anything new," Crystal explained. "For the past year, all I've been doing was working for Professor Oak and volunteering my spare time at Earl's Academy. Sure, there are four particular orphans who are the worst troublemakers I've seen all my life who pull off new pranks every day, but… my daily activities are too… routine, you know?"

"I understand what you mean," Green answered. "Hmm… You said that all you do is work for my grandfather and volunteer at the orphanage. Yet you said that the only Dex Holders you regularly come in contact with were Emerald and Gold. I understand where Emerald comes in, but what about Gold? He probably won't be anywhere near the research stations, and he wouldn't be in the orphanage either."

Crystal suddenly appeared embarrassed. Her cheeks were slightly flushed and she nervously swirled her cup of iced tea. "That's… um… not important," she stammered out. "S – So, what are you getting your sister for her wedding?" she asked in an attempt to change the topic.

Green stared at her nervous expression suspiciously for a few seconds before he decided that it was not his business. "I don't know yet. I came to see what my grandfather was getting his assistant to buy. Since that assistant is you, I suppose I should ask you. What did you buy?"

"Oh, it was an unassembled dinner table and two matching unassembled chairs. Apparently Bill only has a work desk for his computer and he eats at the same desk. Clearly, Daisy didn't like that, so she added the dinner table set as a desired wedding gift." Crystal gave him an embarrassed smile. "I guess there was no way that I could've carried that box all the way back to Pallet Town by myself."

The two Dex Holders continued to talk for a few minutes until Crystal received a message on her Pokégear. She looked at it and noticed that it was from Professor Oak, saying that he needed her back in the lab.

"Looks like you need to get going," Green said as he rose to his feet.

Crystal nodded. She reached into her bag for her wallet when Green already walked up to the counter to pay for her drink.

"Green, why are you paying?" she asked as she quickly walked up to her senior.

"Because something tells me that I shouldn't let my juniors pay," the Gym Leader answered. "Except for a few of my juniors, that is."

"If Gold was here?"

"Then he'd be the one paying."

"Silver?"

"We'd split it into two."

Crystal smiled and bowed to her senior. "Well thank you very much for the drink, then."

The two Dex Holders headed out of the café and stood next to the door. Crystal sent out her Xatu and prepared to leave while Green waited for his Charizard and Scizor to return.

"Alright, Crystal. I might see you later when I get back to Pallet Town," Green said.

"Okay," Crystal said with a nod. Once her Xatu perched on her shoulder and lifted off, she waved to her senior goodbye.

Green watched his junior fly away and let out a short sigh. It was nice to have an interaction with a human being that did not involve any beat-down in a battle. What was this feeling… loneliness? He thought that he was used to solitude, but apparently not.

He stood lost in thought for a while, and only snapped out when his Charizard and Scizor returned. Without a word, he returned his Scizor and jumped on top of his Charizard. He simply pointed towards Johto, intending to go to Goldenrod City. Though Bill's cottage was in Route 25, nowadays, the researcher/maniac stayed at his house in the heart of Johto.

An hour later, Green arrived at Goldenrod City. But instead of charging straight into Bill's house, he stopped by the Department Store first. He felt he needed some time to think of a clever threat and he needed to restock his supply of Pokémon related items. He was going to do both in Celadon City's Department Store, but ended up forgetting about it thanks to Crystal. Unfortunately for Green, he wasn't able to fulfill his needs in the heart of Johto either.

The moment he arrived at the second floor of the store, he was detected by a small group of girls near the food court. Green saw them as well and recognized them to be members of a 'notorious' fan group of quite-possibly-insane girls that seemed to be after ALL the famous male members of the Elite Four, Dex Holders, and Gym Leaders who were close to their age. Since Green was both a Dex Holder _and_ a Gym Leader, he was pretty high up the group's 'want list'. He immediately swiveled around and headed for the exit when the small group of girls started to make a mad dash towards him. One of the girls started to talk through her phone. She was alerting the others to Green's presence…

As Green took the escalator down to the first floor, he could see more members of that sanity-deficient group gathering around the end, literally waiting for him to enter their grasp. He glanced backwards and saw some of the girls charging down the escalator towards him.

'_Ah, hell…_' Green thought with a sigh.

Before the girls caught him, he jumped over the handrail of the escalator and started to sprint. The girls chased after him as fast as they could, shouting/screaming their 'love' messages.

"Green! We love you!"

"We want to talk to you!"

"Please give me an autograph!"

"Sign my ass!"

Green sent out his Scizor. He wasn't going to fight the incoming horde (that would cause more problems than it solved), but he was going to use it to escape. He grabbed onto the Scizor's shoulders.

"Jump!" he ordered.

The Scizor glanced back and saw the horde of crazy girls charging closer. With a look of utter panic, the Pincer Pokémon jumped as high as it could. It couldn't use its wings, but it still managed to jump from the first floor of the Department Store and onto the second. Once it successfully jumped over the glass railing on the second floor, Green returned it back to its Pokéball. He was about to resume running when a little girl walked over to him with a pen and a sheet of paper.

"Can I have your autograph?" she asked.

Green glanced around. None of the insane girls were nearby (yet), so he crouched down to meet the little girl at eye level and gave her his signature. Though the process took 10 seconds at best, it was still enough for the group of crazy girls to spot him and mindlessly charge towards him. The way they were flailing their arms reminded Green of a certain type of zombies he saw in a video game at one point…

Green resumed running. He took a glance around and saw that there were roughly 50 of them scattered around the second floor, running towards him. Apparently, this insane group was having a group meeting of sorts in the Department Store…

He turned a corner and immediately ran into a small group of them who were waiting for him. They instantly latched onto him, each one hugging him and trying to take him.

"Green! I love you!" one screamed. "Have me!"

"Stay back, you lunatics!" Green yelled as he forcefully pushed them away. One came particularly close and he pushed her away by her face.

"He touched me!" the girl shrieked in joy.

Green struggled himself free from the group's grasp and resumed running yet again. Luckily for him, he didn't have to run far this time before the situation was 'resolved'. As he ran past a particularly old jewelry store around a corner, a hand shot out of the open door, grabbed him by his shirt and dragged him inside.

Green quickly crouched and hid behind a shelf and peeked through the window. The crazy group ran past the store, continuing their blind pursuit without realizing that they were passing the Gym Leader.

Once the group disappeared from sight and their mad screams faded into the distance, Green sighed in relief and turned to look at the person who saved him.

"Thanks for saving me," he started as he stood back up. "… Blue…"

* * *

**Some of you may feel that waiting 7 more chapters for further development of the Sinnoh storyline is way too damn long (which it is. Quite absurd, really). Don't feel too bad. Starting now, SL will be able to have faithful reviewers (SL has now hit the 5****th**** chapter mark). And as listed under the Faithful Reviewer category of my profile, they can 'force' me to start/develop a particular storyline. Majority vote style, within 3 days upon update, but every other chapter. From this point on, every even numbered chapter will be the result of the faithful reviewers' requests while the odd numbered ones will be just my own choosing.**

**So, 9 faithful reviewer candidates… take your pick. Options are as follows: 1) Black & White. They headed back towards Nuvema Town, so… will White do okay? Will she adjust and find a solution for her problems? 2) Diamond & Platinum. How will Diamond handle the metaphorical Super MAC round in the form of Platinum's confession? Will Pearl find out? 3) Gold & Crystal. Crystal mentioned that she sees Gold regularly despite her daily schedule not having Gold anywhere. Elaborate! 4) Ruby & Sapphire. What the hell are they doing in Unova?! Explain! 5) Green & Blue. Continue this storyline! Blue finally appeared!**


	6. Dilemma

**Results of the 'vote' from the 8 faithful reviewers: 2 for Black & White, 2 for Ruby & Sapphire, 2 for original plans, 1 for Gold & Crystal, and 1 no-vote. I will consider no-votes and votes for the original plans to be the same, therefore SL #006 is the continuation for Green & Blue, as originally planned.**

**And to make things clear, there is no separate storyline branch that focuses on Red & Yellow. This was said in the very beginning of SL: Red & Yellow will not be in primary focus. Why? The same reason as why that particular pairing isn't in primary focus in SE. It's just hard.**

**Besides, a separate storyline for Red & Yellow… As if SL doesn't have enough already. This means, without any suggestions from faithful reviewers for the even numbered chapters, a storyline needs to wait **_**10**_** chapters for further development. However, just because a particular pairing isn't in primary focus, it doesn't mean it's not there entirely.**

**Segment: Green & Blue.**

* * *

Chapter 6: Dilemma

April 21, Goldenrod City, 11:20 am…

Blue crossed her arms behind her back as she watched Green peek out through the windows. She grinned and approached him as he sighed in relief. She felt quite good about herself for saving Green from that crazy-ass fan club and overall, she was just happy to see him after so long.

"Hi, Green!" she said cheerfully, but rather quietly so no one else but Green may hear.

"Hi, Blue."

Blue looked at him from head to toe and giggled a little at how he looked as if he just barely managed to escape a riot. Which was more or less true… "My, my… you're a mess! You were so neat the last time I saw you." She began to straighten Green's clothes with her fingers, delicately pressing each fold to straighten it out. "It's really nice to see you again."

"Yeah, that's what Crystal said," Green said as he steadily regained his composure.

Blue suddenly looked quite depressed. "… Why didn't you call me at all during that time? I really missed you, you know…"

"If it's any consolation, I didn't contact anyone else either," Green said. "I've been busy… training."

"And are you going to continue doing such?

"No, I'm going to take a break," the Gym Leader answered. "I don't know how Red does it, but I can't train nonstop for over a year."

Blue looked slightly confused. "Red hasn't trained in a year. He's been living peacefully in Pallet Town for quite a while. Which is why I missed you. I see all of my friends regularly except you."

"Oh…"

Blue lightened her expression. "Well then, want to go get a drink so we can catch up? It'll be my treat."

Green shrugged. "Sure. If we can get out of this place in one piece."

Blue laughed a little. "Try to remember who you are talking to. Escaping from a pack of mentally unstable fan girls is nothing compared to what I did in the past."

Green smirked. "Of course. How could I forget?"

Blue began to stretch her arms and legs. "Oh, I haven't done this in years. Let's see if I still have it in me." She suddenly sighed. "I sound old…"

The two Kanto Dex Holders opened the door and peeked outside. None of the crazy girls were out there so they quietly exited the old jewelry store and headed for the exit. But as they took the escalator, they could hear the mad, fanatic screams from that fan club all around them.

"Ah hell…" Green muttered. "Here they come…"

"Mr. Popular, you're _too_ famous," Blue said with a sigh. "Just follow my lead and _try_ to keep up."

Just as the crazy group of girls appeared in her vision, Blue jumped over the handrail of the escalator. The moment she hit the ground, she ran straight towards the insane group. Green hesitated slightly, but still followed.

Blue tossed something towards the crazy-ass girls. With a loud hiss, the object exploded into a thick, purple gas, concealing all of the insane girls from the two Dex Holders. Blue then tossed a Pokéball in front of the gas and her Ditto appeared. It immediately transformed into a ramp of some sort.

"Go!" she ordered Green.

Green ran straight towards the Ditto-ramp and used it to jump over the pack of crazy girls who were momentarily confused by the thick purple gas. Blue followed him and returned her Ditto the moment she jumped. The two Dex Holders ran through the exit, officially escaping the crazy girls. Once they were far enough from the Department Store, Green sent out his Charizard and the two Dex Holders headed towards Azalea Town.

30 minutes later, the two Dex Holders reached a small café next to the Gym in Azalea Town. They both ordered a cup of iced coffee and sat at a small table in the corner.

"Since that crazy group is in Goldenrod, they won't be here," Blue said as she took a sip. "And besides, this is a small café in a small quiet town. There won't be any serious issues caused by your popularity."

"Thanks again, Blue. What was that gas thing you threw at them?" Green asked.

"It's a Smoke Ball," Blue answered. "Silver gave me one a few years ago, and I never really found the use for it. I think I'll ask him if he has any extras."

"Thanks anyways," Green said. "Those crazy girls… where did they come from?"

"You know, I find it odd that you have a crazy fan club while I don't," Blue started. "Okay, the girls may be crazy for you, but I figured that the boys would be crazy for me, you know?"

"And you _want_ a bunch of crazy fans chasing after you everywhere?" Green asked.

"No. That's the thing. On one hand, I'm disappointed that I have no fans, but on the other, I'm happy that I don't have any crazy fans who'd chase me everywhere."

Green took a sip of his iced coffee. "So Blue, what were you doing in Goldenrod?"

"I was just looking at some earrings and necklaces," Blue answered. "Your sister's getting married in a short while, and I thought I could get her some nice jewelry for the wedding."

"In that old jewelry store?"

Blue looked a little embarrassed. "Well… I can't afford any fancy earrings or necklace from newly opened stores."

"I didn't think that you'd _buy_ them," Green muttered as he took another sip.

This time, Blue looked quite offended. "… That was years ago, Green. I haven't stolen anything for more than a decade. I thought you knew me better than that…"

"You still steal from other Dex Holders every now and then."

"I return them shortly after," Blue argued. "I'm borrowing them… without permission." She let out a long sigh. "I guess no one really understands me."

"Sorry."

The two Dex Holders sat in awkward silence before Blue spoke. "So… what brought you to Goldenrod?" she asked after forcing her darkening expression to brighten again. "Surely you didn't go all the way to Goldenrod from Pallet Town just to be chased by those insane girls."

"I was going to go talk to my future brother in law and get a wedding gift for sis."

Blue smiled. "Going to visit Bill? Something tells me that that 'visit' won't be as nice as it sounds."

"What gave you that idea?"

"Bill's terrified of you, you know. Because of you, he's afraid of the wedding," Blue said with a smile. "He's afraid that he might make a mistake and you'll kill him."

Green smiled a little. "That's why I'm going to give him a friendly visit. I'll make sure he knows that I won't be strict on him, but I'll still bury him if he does make any serious mistake."

Blue sighed. "A _friendly_ visit that involves a threat of a burial… Maybe I should go with you. Make sure you don't scare Bill so much that he cancels the wedding."

"I think I'll be fine, Blue," Green said as he finished his iced coffee. "But if you insist on coming along…"

"I would like to," the girl said after another sip. "But I can't. Just before I saved you from your fan club, Red sent me a message saying that he wants to meet me in front of his house."

"And why does he want that?"

"I don't know," Blue answered truthfully. "But lately, I've been trying to get him to fall in love with Yellow. And maybe, _just_ maybe, it finally worked and he wants me to help him."

"Still interfering in other people's business I see?" Green said with a sigh.

Blue pouted a little. "Hey, I'm not _interfering_. Yellow asked me to help so I'm helping." A slightly longing look appeared on her face for a short while. "If you had a love interest, I'd gladly help you too."

Green smirked and shook his head. "I have no such interest."

Blue appeared a little surprised. "Oh… Well, I hope you find someone nice some day. I'm sure lots of attractive, smart, and _sane_ girls are in love with you that are different from the crazy ones you ran away from." She then sipped at her iced coffee. Because of that, Green did not notice that her expression had hints of disappointment and even slight pain.

Green glanced at his watch and rose to his feet. "I should get going now." He reached for his wallet and withdrew money to pay for his drink. He thought for a few seconds before he decided to pay for Blue's drink as well. "It was nice to see you again, Blue," he said as he set the money on the table and prepared to leave.

"Yeah…" Blue muttered. She forced a smile as she looked at him. "So… does this mean that I won't see you again for another long while?"

"No. Crystal suggested that all the Dex Holders gather every now and then for an event. So I'll definitely see you then. And besides, I'm not going away for a long while."

Blue's forced smile became genuine as she nodded. "Okay then. I'll see you later, Green. Try not to be chased by insane girls, alright?"

Green smiled as he headed out of the café. "Sure. I'll try my best to be chased by attractive, smart, and _sane_ girls next time."

Blue kept her smile as Green left the café. But the moment he disappeared from her sight, her smile faded. She stared into her cup of iced coffee and let out a long sigh.

"I'm sure lots of girls really love you…" she muttered. "Oh, Green… if you only knew that _I_ am one of those girls…"

She sighed again and rose to her feet. After paying the cashier with the money Green left, she headed out of the café and with her Wigglytuff, headed towards Pallet Town. Even though she was happy that she saw Green once again, she felt… sad and disappointed in knowing that Green didn't really miss her.

"Green… you don't like any girls yet? That means you don't like me either…" Blue muttered quietly. "I just hope that one day, you'll like me the way I like you…"

A couple of hours later, Blue arrived in Pallet Town. From high above the ground, she spotted Red waiting for her in the shadow of a tree in front of his house. Blue got her Wigglytuff to land while she focused on reverting her expression to normal. Once the Wigglytuff touched the ground and Blue succeeded in hiding her rather sad and lonely expression, she jumped off and approached Red, who seemed to be dozing off in the warm late spring afternoon.

"Hi, Red," she said cheerfully. "What's up?"

Red snapped awake and looked at her. "Oh, hey Blue." He sat up and smiled at her as she sat down on the grass next to him.

Blue returned her Wigglytuff and stretched her legs, as she had strained herself a little when she escaped from the crazy fans a few hours earlier. "I met Green today," she started. "He came back from his year-long training, apparently."

"Wow," Red said. "A year long? He needs to find himself a hobby."

Blue laughed a little. "Red, I never thought that _you'd_ say such a thing."

Red laughed as well. "After a certain point, there's nothing to gain from training alone. I feel I reached that point a while ago. So nowadays, I'm doing what everyone else did while I mindlessly trained: enjoy life."

"You sound like a retired old man, Red," Blue teased a little with a smile.

"I guess I do," Red said as he smiled back.

"Apparently Crys wants to arrange routine events for all the Dex Holders," Blue said. "I'm sure you'll enjoy them."

"Who's Crys again?" Red asked as he searched his memories.

"Red, don't tell me you don't remember your juniors!" Blue exclaimed after a gasp. "Crys, or Crystal, is one of the Johto Dex Holders. She works for Professor Oak, sometimes Professors Elm and Birch, and volunteers at the orphanage in her hometown. Don't you remember?"

"Oh, now I remember. She's the one with the dark blue hair, right?"

Blue sighed. "Yes. But _perhaps_ it'd be better if you try to remember your juniors with their… personality traits and such and not just their hair color."

"I guess I'll get to know all of my juniors in that event thing," Red said with a shrug. "But Blue, listen," he said rather abruptly seriously. "There's something important I need to discuss with you."

Blue looked at her friend's warm inviting red eyes intently. "Oh? What is it?"

"I've been thinking about it for quite some time, and I think I'll need your help with something very important."

Blue gave him a warm smile. '_What, that you like Yellow? It's about time you admit it…_' "What is it? I'll gladly help in any way I can."

"Well, it's just that… I think I'm in love with…" Red started. His tone lacked the nervousness that normal people had during a confession, but Blue could tell that Red was quite nervous.

'_Ah, my prediction is correct! He's in love with Yellow!_' Blue thought to herself happily. But she still pretended to be curious.

Red looked into her bright blue eyes and gave her a smile. "You."

Blue gasped in shock. "Wh – What?" Without warning, Red reached over and gently kissed her on the lips. She simply remained frozen, staring at Red with wide open eyes. '_Oh no…_'

* * *

**Just like the Sinnoh trio, I decided to completely screw over the Kanto quartet with another 'wrong' confession. And to top it all off, the next chapter will be the start of a different storyline. So just like the Sinnoh storyline, you'll have to wait for a while. You've got to LOVE being evil- I mean… I'm… sorry?**

**Anyways, the minor Red & Yellow mini-segment will completely be developed through… other branches. As the Dex Holders start to gather, the Red & Yellow mini-segment will be described/explained/developed through interactions that Red and Yellow have with other Dex Holders.**


	7. New Life

**SL is back to the Black & White segment. Even though I said that you will need to wait quite a bit for further development on this storyline, that is no longer true. Why? Because I noticed a flaw in trying to go with that idea, and it will be explained later. SL does NOT have an outline like SA and I didn't plan far ahead. So quite a few conflicts in SL so far have no planned solutions (uh oh).**

**And for additional clarification: each segment/storyline is called Dex Holder 1 & Dex Holder 2 (example, Diamond & Platinum) because that storyline will feature the pairing between them. Any other pairing that involves Dex Holder 1 or 2 but not the other (example, Pearl & Platinum) are viewed merely as obstacles. That Red & Blue thing from last chapter is just one BIG obstacle as it interferes with two pairings at once.**

**And to add further clarity when reading previous chapters, each SL chapter will have a "segment" listed before the chapter begins that shows what storyline is being focused on. Similar to the "category" of SR and "primary" of SE. The change has been implemented in all previous SL chapters and will be applied to future chapters as they come.**

**Also, updated Age Relations has been posted on my profile page for quick access. Ignore any and all inconsistencies this may present in all of S-EARL so far. The detailed explanation for all of the determined Age Relations will be posted on the bottom of the newest chapters of all of S-EARL. Therefore, SE #037, SA #026, SR #019, and SL #007.**

**Segment: Black & White.**

* * *

Chapter 7: New Life

April 21, Nuvema Town, 8 pm…

Upon arriving at his hometown, Black got his Braviary to steadily lower its altitude right in front of his house. Once he wasn't too far above the ground, Black simply got his Braviary to release him. The Braviary then carefully landed on the ground.

Black opened the door to his house before turning his attention to White, who was still fast asleep on top of the Valiant Pokémon. He carefully and gently lifted her onto his arms and headed inside his house. But as he held her in his arms, he noticed that White was a _lot_ lighter than he remembered. The last time he carried her in his arms was in Nimbasa City a year ago, after White's _incident_ in the Ferris Wheel. She was pretty light back then, but now that she starved herself for over a week, she felt unnaturally light. Her skin was quite sickly pale and her frame overall was a lot thinner than before.

Black felt terrible for his close friend and promised again that he would help her get back to normal. To start, he was going to provide White a comfortable home and feed her proper and good meals so that she may physically recover.

Upon arriving at his bedroom, Black gently put White on his bed and tucked her in. The girl was still fast asleep so he quietly closed the door behind him and headed to the living room where he'd sleep. He was still quite tired from searching all over Unova and his head still hurt from that impromptu Psychic.

…

Next day, April 22, 5:30 am…

…

Black woke up from his sleep and let out a long yawn. He opened his eyes and tried to remember why exactly he was sleeping on the couch. Suddenly remembering the events of the previous day, he quickly sat up. He ran upstairs to his bedroom as fast as he could, but also as quiet as he could muster in case White was still asleep.

Black reached his bedroom within a couple of seconds and gently knocked on the door. He knocked again when he received no response. After a minute of silence, he quietly opened the door and peeked inside. White wasn't in the room, however. The bed was neatly made and it appeared as if no one had ever entered the room in the past week. Everything was perfectly neat, as if the girl had woken up earlier, cleaned up everything and…

'_Oh, no… did she leave again?_'

Black hastily ran downstairs and prepared to look for White all over Unova once more. But the moment he left his house and reached for Braviary's Pokéball, he could see someone sitting on the grassy hill roughly 100 meters away. Hoping that the person was White, Black quickly ran over.

But as he approached, he realized that the person (a girl, as he noticed) was unfamiliar. Black stopped running and was about to send out his Braviary when he noticed something. The unfamiliar girl was staring blankly ahead into the distance and had the similar expression as White. Black carefully looked at her as he walked closer.

Hearing him approach, the girl turned to look at him. She examined the desperate look on his face and understood everything.

"Were you… worried about me?" she asked quietly.

Black stared at her for a second before he realized who he was looking at. "… Miss President?" He looked at the new clothes she was wearing. "… What did you do to yourself?"

White looked away from Black and stared into the distance again. "I don't want people to recognize me. My face was all over the news for a few days. It's possible that people will notice me if I wear the same clothes."

Black examined his friend's new clothes again. White was now wearing long black skintight spandex-like pants/leggings, beige skirt-like shorts, tight white shirt with elbow-length blue sleeves, a pink ribbon that reached inside her shirt, and she now had her hair tied into two long side tails. A cheerful new look, if her expression wasn't so damn crestfallen. White turned to look at his expression again.

"I can see that you were worried that I left again. I told you I can't run anymore. Didn't you trust me?"

"I trust you," Black said. "But what are you doing all the way out here?"

White took a deep breath. "The cool wind… it feels so refreshing. And looking at this peaceful town is just… comforting."

Black glanced at her new attire one more time before he sat beside her. The girl's new clothes did make her look cuter than before (he admit, White was pretty cute), but she would look a lot better if her expression wasn't so dark. Her expression was a lot lighter than the previous day, but it was still very dark.

"Miss President, do you want to eat breakfast?" Black asked.

White shook her head. "Not yet. I'm not hungry. Besides, it's not even 6 in the morning. It's not the time for breakfast."

"Oh…"

White looked over at him and smiled. Black was relieved to know that the smile wasn't forced, but was genuine. "If you don't mind, would you like to watch the sunrise with me?"

Black nodded. "Sure. I'll watch it with you."

The two Unova Dex Holders sat on the grass and stared into the distance. The sky was starting to brighten as the sun steadily rose half an hour later. While Black was lost in thought about what he was going to make for breakfast, White stared the sky. She could just see the edge of the sun on the horizon…

"Beautiful…" she muttered.

"Huh?" Black said as he snapped out of his thoughts. "Did you say something?"

"The sunrise," White said. "It's beautiful."

Black looked at the slowly rising star (the sun is a star, after all) but… couldn't really see why it was beautiful. "Uh… yeah."

"You don't think it's beautiful?" White asked.

"Honestly… no. It's bright, but I don't see why it's beautiful," Black answered.

White sighed and shook her head. "I just don't understand guys… not at all."

"I heard that once before," Black said with a smile.

White smiled as well. "I guess you have."

"Do you want to eat breakfast now?" Black asked.

White nodded. Black jumped to his feet and offered a hand to White. The girl looked a little embarrassed, but accepted the offer and got her feet. She then followed Black as he led her back to his house.

Back in Black's house, White washed her hands and spent a few minutes to convince herself to remain bright and hope for the best.

In the kitchen, Black washed his hands as he thought of what to make. He was originally going to make a couple of sandwiches, but then he remembered that White didn't really eat anything for almost a whole week. There was no way that she would be able to eat a sandwich without any repercussions. As such, Black prepared some 'soft' food, namely soup.

Soon, the two Unova Dex Holders sat at the dinner table with their breakfast. Black carefully observed White, hoping that she would accept the soup. To his relief, White did accept and ate the soup. She didn't finish the whole bowl, but she still ate, which was the important thing.

"So Miss President, how'd you sleep?" Black asked once White was finished.

"Pretty good," White answered. "It was the best sleep I had in a long while."

"So you feel good now, right?"

White nodded. "I'm feeling a lot better, that's for sure." She suddenly looked a little embarrassed as she looked into Black's eyes. "Listen, Black…"

"What is it?"

"… Thank you for taking care of me," she said with a timid smile. "You really are a great friend, and I really appreciate it."

Black smiled at her. He felt a little embarrassed at her sudden express in gratitude. "Don't mention it, Miss President. You're my friend. It's only natural for me to help you when you need it."

The girl appeared apologetic and a little ashamed. "… Sorry for attacking you yesterday, though. I'm sorry I didn't trust you earlier too. I'm sorry for trying to evade you and getting you to chase me all over Unova."

"It's okay," Black said nicely. "I understand why you did what you did. But that's in the past now. As long as you promise that you'll stay with me and let me help you, I'll be perfectly fine."

White nodded and smiled again. "I promise."

As the two Unova Dex Holders talked, Black noticed that White's expression was becoming brighter and brighter. He was quite happy that she was smiling so much now, and he was now certain that she was so depressed because no one was trying to comfort her.

Black finished with his breakfast and White helped him in cleaning the dishes. Since Black was taking care of her so much, she felt it was her responsibility to help her friend whenever and wherever possible.

Once the two Unova Dex Holders finished, they sat on the couch in the living room and began to talk about what they did since they last met. Black was the one doing all the talking, as he knew that White wasn't going to talk about what she did in her company. The two Dex Holders continued to talk for an hour.

Black tried his best to add some humor in his story so that he could make White laugh. But before he managed, someone rang the doorbell. White gasped and quickly hid herself behind the couch, afraid that someone had come to look for her. Black tried to comfort her, but she looked too scared for his efforts to have any effect.

Once again, Black felt overwhelming sympathy for his friend. It was clear that she had received a _lot_ of 'visitors' who demanded full refund with a threat of a lawsuit in the past few days seeing how terrified she was of someone ringing the doorbell.

After making sure that White wasn't visible from the front door, Black went to answer it. When he opened the door, he could see his childhood friends Cheren and Bianca waiting in the doorway.

"Hi, Black!" Bianca said cheerfully.

"Oh, hey," Black said with a wave. He let out a short sigh of relief.

"Hey Black, where were you yesterday or the day before?" Cheren asked. "You didn't answer any of our calls and you weren't home either."

"I was… _quite_ busy yesterday and the day before," Black answered.

"So where were you?" Bianca asked.

"All over the place," Black answered truthfully. He didn't want to say _why_ he was all over the place, as he didn't know if White wanted anyone other than him to know of her location.

Cheren and Bianca appeared a little suspicious, as they wondered why their friend wasn't answering them properly. Cheren was about to ask something when he saw something from inside the house. There was a girl who had peeked around a wall at them for a split second before quickly hiding.

"Who was that?" he asked as he peeked over Black's shoulder.

Black quickly glanced back into his house before he turned to look at his friends again. He let out a long sigh. "… Come on in, guys."

Black turned away and walked deeper into his house, looking around here and there. Quite concerned with their friend's unusual behavior, Cheren and Bianca entered the house and quietly closed the door behind them.

"Miss President?" Black called as he took a thorough look around his house.

"Miss President?" Bianca muttered in surprise. "Does that mean…"

"She's here?" Cheren said in equal surprise. He did recall reading the news about White's company, but he had no idea that the girl was in Nuvema…

The two Unova trainers saw Black open a closet door. The Dex Holder quickly crouched and began to talk quietly. Cheren and Bianca could hear a softer, quieter, and higher pitched voice talking for a few seconds before Black stood back up. From the closet, a fearful looking girl came out, essentially hiding behind Black. She glanced at the two visitors and appeared a little relieved. Black led her towards the dinner table and Cheren and Bianca followed.

"So… White," Cheren started as he looked at the girl. "I heard what happened on the news. But how did you get here?"

White didn't respond but her expression darkened. Black gently put an arm around her to comfort her.

"Miss President, do you mind if I tell them?" he asked. "They're my childhood friends and I trust them. They'll only help you. Do you trust them?"

White still kept her head down but slowly nodded. Black looked at Cheren and Bianca and filled them in on what happened to White. He then explained what he did in the past two days and what he intended on doing by having White stay at his house. The two Unova trainers nodded in understanding and agreed to keep everything a secret.

"Well, I hope you find Nuvema to be very comforting," Cheren said as he looked at White.

"But hey, what brings you two here?" Black asked. "Cheren, you said that you were trying to pass the Gym Leader Qualification Tests, right?"

"I came to see Professor Juniper," Cheren answered. "I figured she might know a few things about the tests but she told me to talk to you since you had more experience with Gym Leaders."

"I bought some tools from the store yesterday," Bianca started. "But they were kind of… broken, so I'm on my way to go get a refund…" She held her tongue a bit too late. White's expression darkened significantly at the word "refund", and Bianca felt terrible. "I – I mean… though I'm working for…" Again, Bianca noticed her friend's darkening expression. "I – I – I mean… um… the tools were worth a lot of money, and…" Cheren and Black gave her menacing warnings with their eyes. "… I'll just be quiet now."

White buried her face in her arms and started to tremble. Understandably, she was _quite_ sensitive to words like "work", "refund", and "money". Bianca started to panic as Black tried his best to comfort his fellow Dex Holder. Cheren put a hand to his face and shook his head.

"Sorry Black, White," he said in a comforting tone. "I think it'd be best if Bianca and I left."

Cheren rose to his feet but Bianca remained seated. She kept her eyes at White, wondering how she could help her.

"Come on, Bianca," Cheren said.

"But… shouldn't we help her?" Bianca asked.

"You won't be of any help," Cheren replied. "We should just let Black comfort her. We'll help her if Black says we're needed."

Once Cheren and Bianca left, White took a shuddering breath as she tried to calm down. She didn't look anywhere near as happy as she was before the two Unova trainers visited, and Black couldn't help but notice how quickly his friend's mood could be ruined. She looked quite happy earlier that day when he sat beside her watching the sunrise. Then _someone_ said some wrong things and White now looked the same as the day before when she was trying to escape from him.

"Are you okay, Miss President?" Black asked nicely.

White flashed him a rather bitter smile and slightly shook her head. "It's odd how things work, don't you think?" she said quietly after a sigh. "Good things and bad things seem to happen at random but yet, some are repeating like a pattern."

"What do you mean?" Black asked.

White let out another long sigh. "First… at Nimbasa City, I… got my hopes and dreams crushed. Then once I got over it and we met up again in the Pokémon League, you got your hopes and dreams crushed. And now, once you've gotten better, my hopes and dreams have been crushed yet again."

'_Oh… right… __**that**__ event when Musha… left me…_' Black thought as he sighed as well. "But… you already got over your troubles once, so I know you can get over this one. Come on, Miss President. As you said to me once before: you came this far. You can't give up now."

"It's not the same, Black," White said slowly. "My situation would be understandable to you if you managed to get all the way to the Pokémon League, get your Gym Badges confiscated, sent back home, and all of the Gym Leaders, Elite Four members, and the Pokémon League champion hate you." She looked down at the floor and sighed again. "Face it, Black. It's over for me. I lost my company, so I'm basically back to where I was before I started to work towards my dream. But this time, everyone everywhere hates me and my reputation is completely ruined. There is no second start."

"So what then, huh?" Black asked, starting to become a little frustrated seeing how all of his attempts to cheer up the girl failed so miserably. "You can't stay here forever, you know."

"Of… of course not," White said rather quickly. She sounded quite surprised… She was about to say something but abruptly closed her mouth and simply buried her face into her arms.

Black looked at her for a second, wondering why she was reacting like this. Then he realized his mistake. '_Oh crap… I sounded as if I was going to kick her out…_' "N – No, I didn't mean it like that, Miss President," he said hastily. "I meant… you can't stay like this forever. You're more than welcome to stay in my house for as long as you'd like."

White looked up at him from her arms and wiped away the tears that were forming in her eyes. "No… you're right… I can't stay here forever. There are people out there who are looking for me. They'll find me here eventually…"

Before White finished, someone rang the doorbell. The chime was immediately followed by a series of loud knocks, which was followed by some barely audible arguing. White whimpered as she buried her face into her arms again. She started to sob and Black desperately tried to calm her down.

"It's okay, Miss President," he said as he rubbed her on the back.

"They… they found me," the girl sobbed out. "There's nowhere I can go now…"

"There's no way anyone followed us here," Black said. "I'm sure this is someone else. And besides," he said as he took out his Pokéballs. "Even if they're here for you, I won't let them get anywhere near you. I'll fight to keep you away from them."

Black put the Pokéballs in his pocket and went to open the door with one hand in his pocket for quick access to his Pokémon. When he opened the door, he could see an unfamiliar boy and a girl talking/arguing with each other. They saw him and stopped bickering immediately. The boy had a white hat, had black hair and red eyes. The girl had a blue bandana with a white Pokéball logo on it and had brown hair and blue eyes… and sharp teeth.

"Hello," the boy said. "My name is Ruby, and this is Sapphire. We are here to ask you if you know the whereabouts of the president of the BW Agency."

Black clenched his Pokéballs in his pocket. So they _were_ after White… But as long as he was there, they weren't getting anywhere near her…

* * *

**SL needed another dose of the Black & White segment so that it may 'unlock' the Ruby & Sapphire storyline. Due to the proximity of the Ruby & Sapphire storyline and the Black & White storyline, the former could only start after a major cameo in the latter. The Gold & Crystal segment has already been unlocked in SL #005 (Crystal's appearance), so it can come up any time. Now that all 5 storylines have been unlocked, any can occur at any time.**

**Now, SL #008 is… up to the faithful reviewers. 6 options now. 1) Green & Blue. Red kissed Blue? What the hell! 2) Gold & Crystal. Explain how Crystal sees Gold regularly despite her schedule! 3) Ruby & Sapphire. They **_**really**_** need an explanation as to why they're in Unova! 4) Diamond & Platinum. How is Diamond doing, damn it?! 5) Black & White. How will Ruby and Sapphire change Black and White's lives? 6) Original Plan/No Vote. By 'original plan', this means I get to pick whatever I want.**

**And as advertised, the newly updated Age Relations and its explanation are here. So far, the only difference between this one and the current one is Gold's age relations with everyone else.**

* * *

Age Relations:

Birthday, Ages (Arc):

Red: August 8, 11 (RGB), 13 (Y), 14 (GSC), 16 (FRLG, E)  
Green: November 22, 11 (RGB), 13 (Y), 14 (GSC), 16 (FRLG, E)  
Blue: June 1, 11 (RGB), 13 (Y), 14 (GSC), 16 (FRLG), 17 (E)  
Yellow: March 3, 9 (RGB), 11 (Y), 12 (GSC), 14 (FRLG, E)  
Gold: July 21, 11 (GSC), 13 (E), 16 (HGSS)  
Silver: December 24, 11 (GSC), 13 (FRLG, E), 16 (HGSS)  
Crystal: April 30, 11 (GSC), 13 (E), 16 (HGSS)  
Ruby: July 2, (RS), 12 (E)  
Sapphire: September 20, 10 (RS), 11 (E)  
Emerald: May 31, 11 (E)  
Diamond: April 4, 12 (DP, Pt)  
Pearl: June 6, 12 (DP, Pt)  
Platinum: October 27, 12 (DP, Pt)  
Black: N/A, 14 (BW)  
White: N/A, N/A

RS arc starts on Ruby's birthday and ends on Sapphire's. Therefore, Ruby's birthday would have passed but not Sapphire's. But Ruby is recorded to be 11 in RS arc while Sapphire is at 10. Therefore, Ruby and Sapphire will be at the same age when Sapphire's birthday passes. E arc takes place a year after somewhere in the same 80 day time frame, which is after Emerald's birthday. Emerald is recorded to be 11 along with Sapphire. Therefore, Ruby and Sapphire are 1 year older than Emerald.

Ruby, Sapphire: 0  
Emerald: -1

DP arc starts in September (in the _actual_ Japanese version), after Diamond and Pearl's birthdays. Platinum's has not passed yet, but all three are recorded to be 12. Therefore, Platinum is 1 year older than Diamond and Pearl.

Platinum: 0  
Diamond, Pearl: -1

Silver is recorded to be 13 in E arc but his birthday has not passed yet. Therefore, he is two years older than Ruby and Sapphire. Yellow is recorded to be 14 in E, but her birthday has passed. Therefore, Silver and Yellow are at the same age. Crystal's birthday has passed in E and she is recorded to be 13 years old. Therefore, she is 1 year above Ruby and Sapphire, but 1 year below Yellow and Silver. Blue's birthday has passed in E, but not in FRLG. If Blue's birthday did not pass in FRLG, then neither would have Red's or Green's. Therefore all three are at the same age. Blue is recorded to be 17 in E, therefore the Kanto trio are 4 years above Crystal.

Red, Green, Blue: +4  
Yellow, Silver: +1  
Crystal: 0  
Ruby, Sapphire: -1  
Emerald: -2

In GSC arc, Crystal is recorded to be 11 while the Kanto trio are at 14. This means none of the Kanto trio's birthdays have passed but Crystal's has, since they are actually 4 years apart. If Blue's birthday has not passed, then neither would have Gold's. But Gold is recorded to be 11 in GSC, therefore he is 1 year above Crystal.

Red, Green, Blue: +4  
Yellow, Gold, Silver: +1  
Crystal: 0  
Ruby, Sapphire: -1  
Emerald: -2

As White's birthday and age are not known, we don't know if she is the same age as Black. Black is 14 in BW arc, but his birthday's not known, neither is the date in which the BW arc takes place. So he could be 15 if birthday has not passed, or 14 if it has.

**From this point on, the Age Relations are merely postulations.**

Although Platinum is 13 in Pt arc once her birthday passes and Emerald is 11 in E after his birthday, given the apparent temporal proximity between the Pt arc and the HGSS arc, it's possible that DP and Pt arcs take place 3 years after E.

Red, Green, Blue: +4  
Yellow, Gold, Silver: +1  
Crystal: 0  
Ruby, Sapphire: -1  
Emerald: -2  
Platinum: -3  
Diamond, Pearl: -4

We assume Black and White are at the same age.

Black, White: 0.

Given the nature of Pt arc's conclusion, it's possible that the BW arc takes place at the same time or very close to the HGSS arc. Therefore, the updated Age Relations that will be used in all of S-EARL goes as…

Red, Green, Blue: +4  
Yellow, Gold, Silver: +1  
Crystal: 0  
Ruby, Sapphire: -1  
Emerald, Black, White: -2  
Platinum: -3  
Diamond, Pearl: -4


	8. Competition

**Vote results: 3 Gold & Crystal, 1 Ruby & Sapphire, 1 Diamond & Platinum, 2 Original Plans/No Vote. So, with a total of 5 (3 for Gold & Crystal, 2 for Original Plans) votes, SL #008 is Gold & Crystal.**

**Maybe I should've mentioned this earlier. Votes for "Original Plans/No Vote" will basically mean that those votes are for MY decisions. Yes. Those votes mean that you are trying to give a dastardly evil person absolute and supreme executive power (and this is not because some watery tart threw a sword at me. Reference!). However, that's not all bad. If my 'vote', as in what I feel like working on, is the same as one of the other options then the total count will be combined and if it becomes the majority vote, then that option will be taken.**

**And by the way, the status of a faithful reviewer can be revoked **_**very**_** quickly due to the very simple (and quite binary, really) requirements. That said, it's equally easy to regain that status, also due to the same requirements. So keep this in mind if you feel that your votes have been ignored. So far, two have had their status revoked.**

**Segment: Gold & Crystal.**

* * *

Chapter 8: Competition

April 21, Pallet Town, 10:30 am…

"Professor! I'm back!" Crystal announced as she entered Professor Oak's lab. She didn't yell too loud, in case the professor was having a conversation somewhere.

On her way back to her research post, she looked at the calendar and happily counted the days she had left until her special day. She hoped that a special someone would have a special gift for her on that special day… She didn't really care what it was going to be, as long as it had _some_ thought put into it.

Maybe that special someone would set up a small yet special event for that day. Maybe that person would offer to take her on some special adventures somewhere. But given that person's capability in planning (or rather, _in_capability), Crystal knew that her special day might just turn into a jumble of _special_ randomness. But regardless, she knew that that day would turn out to be exciting. After all, every Dex Holder had very special lives where each and every day had a chance of becoming something unbelievable… no matter how slim that chance was.

But as Crystal thought, she seriously had doubts that the special someone even _knew_ when her birthday was. That jerk… Even after all those gifts she sent him during his birthdays and holidays, he still didn't seem to care enough to remember her birthday. It wasn't that he didn't care about her, but rather, he didn't view her special enough to remember certain things about her.

Crystal had pestered him once, about Valentine's Day a couple of months ago. She even sent him a box of sweet, sweet chocolates as an example of how it's done. In response, he sent her… a bag of potato chips. But at least he gave her something, which was a start. Not a very good start, but enough for now. Besides, it's the… thought that counts?

Crystal walked past the 'living room' of the lab and spotted Professor Oak staring at the big box of furniture that the Johto Dex Holder had purchased a couple of hours ago. The professor appeared to be wondering how he was going to deliver that heavy box, and how he was going to _hide_ that box from Daisy so that he could make it a surprise.

"Thank you for buying this for me, Crystal," the professor said as he turned to look at her. "Now I need to figure out where I'm going to hide this until the day of the wedding, and how I'm going to deliver this on that day."

"I'm sure Green could help with that," Crystal said.

"I suppose he could. He's not doing anything nowadays, anyways." The professor turned to stare at the box again. "You're done for today, Crystal. You can go home if you want."

Crystal appeared a little confused. "Oh… but you said that you needed me back in the lab."

Professor Oak turned to look at her again. "Ah right. Thanks for reminding me. I called you over because I wanted to give you a couple of things."

The girl became a little excited. "Really?" she asked as she looked at the professor expectantly.

The professor took out a small box filled with miniature Pokéballs from his lab coat. "First… This box contains various new prototypes of Pokéballs. A lot of these were designed to work opposite of existing Pokéballs. Such as… Solar Ball here, which works particularly well against Pokémon that evolve using the Sun Stone."

Crystal nodded. "So the opposite of a Moon Ball?"

"Yes. And there are the Feather Ball, Rival Ball, and Power Ball, the opposites of-"

"The Heavy, Love, and Level Balls, right?"

The professor nodded. "As a capture specialist, I'm sure you know more about these than I do. There are a few others in there, and I included a list in the box that has the names of these prototypes and what they're supposed to do. I want you to catch various Pokémon with these and see how they fare when compared to existing Pokéballs."

"Yes, professor," Crystal said as she received the box. She put it in her bag after taking a brief look at the minimized Pokéballs.

Professor Oak then reached into his other lab pocket. "And the other thing I wanted to give you…" He pulled out what appeared to be a brand new pure golden necklace with a large silver pendant. "I was going to give this to Daisy, but Bill bought an identical one before I could give it to her. So I might as well give it to you."

Crystal gasped in shock as she received the necklace. "Oh, wow. This is beautiful! Thank you so much!" she said happily.

"Your birthday's coming up, isn't it?" the professor asked. "So consider that to be an early birthday gift."

Crystal bowed to the professor in deep gratitude. "Thank you very much!"

The professor looked at her happy expression for a second. "Hmm… Crystal, I never thought you cared much about jewelry. You certain don't seem the type to get overly excited about a necklace."

"Well… I don't care that much," Crystal replied as she put the necklace in her bag. "But I really appreciate the idea of receiving an expensive gift. And the only pieces of jewelry I have are my earrings. Quite a few people I know, like my mom, _pity_ me for that reason, and I always hated that."

"You really are unique, Crystal," the professor noted. "Most girls don't get jewelry to avoid being pitied…"

"I'm not extravagant like them," the girl answered. "I don't like spending money on purely appearance related items. Unlike _someone_ I know…"

She sighed and shook her head as she remembered the attire her mother had forced her into last year. Once that 'field trip' to the Safari Zone was officially over and all that Team Rocket stuff was finished being dealt with, Crystal had promptly ditched that attire and returned to her regular. She kept the long socks on though, as it kept her legs warm. Mostly. The socks didn't quite reach up to her shorts, however, leaving a small portion of her legs bare. Crystal didn't like that so much, but she figured she'll get used to it. And more practically, the long socks offered her some knee protection against scrapes and scratches that may hinder her capturing abilities.

Before long, Professor Oak retreated to the dedicated conference room in the lab so that he could discuss some things with Professor Elm. Crystal bowed goodbye to the professor before she headed back home. Even though she didn't have to do anything, her lifestyle demanded that she did something productive or helpful. So instead of going into her house, she headed towards Earl's Academy so she could help out some more. And maybe after a few hours of that, she'd stop by New Bark Town and see if Gold would accompany her in testing out some of the Pokéball prototypes. She had to come up with a plausible excuse though, to avoid suspicion.

…

Several hours later, 3 pm, New Bark Town…

…

Gold took a deep breath and stared at the pool table in front of him. He needed full focus, as his next shot would determine whether he broke his personal record or not. He calculated his options after moving around the table to examine different angles. Having found the perfect angle, he took aim and holding his breath, prepared to take the shot…

But _just_ before he did, he paused and glanced through the open windows, just in case someone or some_thing_ tried to disrupt his focus. It was entirely possible that someone like the youngster Joey could come by, randomly lose balance, and smash into a fence.

Relieved that no random distractions were going to occur, Gold refocused on the pool table and prepared to take his shot. But unfortunately, just before the tip of his indestructible billiard cue hit the cue ball, his Pokégear vibrated _quite_ violently from his pocket, making him jump in surprise and hit the cue ball in the wrong place. Gold watched in horror as his shot completely missed… there goes his record…

With clenched teeth, the goggled boy pulled out his Pokégear to see which suicidal human being decided to interrupt him and destroy his record. The caller ID was registered to the cutest girl in all of Johto, so he quickly picked it up.

"Hey, what's up?"

"Um… h – hi, Gold," came a timid female voice. "I – It's… um… m – my turn… So are… are you doing anything?"

"Not anymore," Gold answered.

"In… in that case, w – would you… want to?"

"Alright, sure. Where are you?"

"Oh, thank you so much!" the girl cried out excitedly. "I'm in my house in Violet City."

"And where is that?"

"It's on the same street as the orphanage. But if you'd want… maybe I'll wait for you in the Pokémon Center?"

"Alright then. I'll see you there."

Gold hung up and prepared to leave. After making sure that he had his Pokémon, billiard cue, hat, and goggles, he sent out his Mantine (and Remoraids) and headed towards Violet City. He briefly contemplated in getting some flowers in Cherrygrove City, but decided against it. The girl he was going to meet wasn't special. She wasn't really worth the effort. Besides, this girl was crazy for him as is.

30 minutes later, Gold arrived in Violet City. While in the air, he spotted several police cars and Pokémon gathered around what appeared to be a school of some sort. Wondering what was up, Gold got his Mantine to land nearby.

As the goggled boy walked closer, he could see that the school was in fact, Earl's Academy. As he approached, Falkner came up to meet him.

"Hey, Gold," he said with a wave.

Gold looked at him, trying to remember who he was. "… You're that Gym Leader cop, right?"

"I suppose I am," the Violet City Gym Leader answered.

"What's going on here?"

"An attempted murderer broke into the orphanage to evade us," the Gym Leader replied. "He tried to hold some of the people there hostage, but it didn't go so well."

Gold looked into the orphanage and soon spotted a familiar looking girl surrounded a group of crying little kids. The girl was trying her best to calm down the orphans, but had little success. All of the little kids were hugging her tight and crying. Except for four of them. Those four didn't seem to be affected in the slightest and simply glanced around.

"Hey, Crys!" Gold called.

The girl almost jumped in surprise and quickly spun to face his direction. "Hi, Gold!"

Gold walked over towards her and Crystal attempted to do the same. She didn't make much progress, as she still had 20 crying little orphans attached to her limbs.

"So Crys, what happened?" Gold asked. "I heard some guy broke in."

Crystal nodded. "Yeah, he did. He tried to hold me hostage so he could work out some kind of deal with the police."

Gold looked quite surprised. "He held _you_ hostage?" He then noticed that Crystal had a band aid on her left cheek. "So are you okay?"

"I'm fine, thanks to those four," Crystal answered as she turned to look at the four orphans who were glancing around nonchalantly. She shook her head a little and smiled at Gold. "So Gold, what brings you here?"

"I came here to meet someone," Gold replied. "Well, not _here_ specifically. She's waiting for me in the Pokémon Center."

'_She? He came here to meet some girl?_' Crystal thought as her expression started to darken. She forced herself to maintain the bright smile. "Wh – Who are you meeting?"

Gold didn't notice the change in her tone. "She's just some girl who's absolutely crazy for me. What can I say? Girls fall head over heels for my irresistible charm," he said with a smug look, unknowingly worsening his friend's mood. "She's really nice though. And very cute. She's pretty smart too, unlike the other pretty girls in New Bark Town."

Crystal clenched her teeth, forcing a certain unfamiliar feeling to stay deep inside her and not be revealed. "Did… did you see her a few times before? Like… a date?"

"Nah. This is the first. But she's been asking for this for quite a while now."

"So… do you l – like her?" Crystal asked, desperately trying to keep her voice steady.

Gold seems to have noticed her voice shaking this time. "Crys, you sure you're okay? Maybe you should go home and rest, and… do whatever a Super Serious Gal like you think is fun and relaxing."

Crystal then realized that her voice was shaking beyond control. Knowing that she couldn't calm down nearly as fast enough, she decided to take advantage of that hostage event from a short while ago. She pretended as if she was still distraught from that event (which actually wasn't nearly as terrible as some of her experiences from the past). That way, hopefully no one would figure out the real reason why her voice was starting to shake and why her legs were wobbling.

"N – Now that you mention it… I – I think… I'll go home. It's not every day that I – I have a knife pressed against my throat…"

"Big sis, please get better soon," the little orphans said as they released Crystal from their embrace.

Crystal nodded and patted some of the orphans on the head. "I will… I'll try to come back here tomorrow, okay?"

Gold glanced at the time on his Pokégear. "Whoa. I really need to get going…" He looked at Crystal and gave her a nod. "I'll see you later then, Crys. Try not to be held at knife point again, alright?"

Crystal forced herself to smile and nod. "O – Okay… Gold… Have fun with your… _date_."

Gold waved her goodbye and with his Mantine, headed towards Violet City's Pokémon Center. Crystal watched him leave and let out a long sigh of despair. It appears that she had waited far too long. If Gold was starting to go on dates with cute looking girls, then eventually, he would fall in love as well. Crystal knew that Gold didn't view her as attractive (given how he never complimented her appearance). But if he thought that the other girls were cute, there was no way that she would be able to compete against her 'rivals'. More she thought about it, the more depressed she became. She liked Gold, and even loved him. But there was absolutely no way that he would feel the same way about her…

Crystal soon finished comforting the orphans and slowly headed back home. She had no idea what she was going to do. Her original plan had her going to Gold's house in New Bark Town to see if he wanted to accompany her in testing the prototype Pokéballs. Her excuse was that the trip would be boring all by herself so she wanted Gold's company. It wasn't very plausible, but she doubted that he would realize it. But now that the goggled boy was on a _date_, she was stumped. She wasn't in a good enough mood to test the prototype Pokéballs, and since Professor Oak said that she wasn't needed, she couldn't help out on research either…

Upon arriving at her house, Crystal went up to her room and lied down on her bed. She needed to relax a little so that she could get her mind to focus. She let out a long sigh. Unfortunately, there was no way that she could just relax, as her mind was way too distracted. She needed to calm down first, and being alone wasn't going to fix that problem.

Crystal reached for her Pokégear and checked the list of contacts. The very first entry was her own house, and the one directly below was… Gold. She sighed again as the thought of Gold dating another girl popped up in her mind. She shook her head and scrolled down the list. She briefly contemplated in calling Emerald, but decided not to. He wouldn't really be of much help. There was no way that she would _ever_ let her juniors see her in distress. Besides, he was on a mission somewhere and she didn't want to distract him.

Crystal soon spotted the name of a person who might be able to cheer her up. Sure, she didn't see him regularly, but she did contact him relatively frequently to see how he was doing. Even though his father was staying in Viridian City, he was still traveling here and there in Johto. Crystal wasn't sure whether she wanted to drag him into this mess, as she knew that he wouldn't like it at all. But she _really_ needed some cheering.

After staring at her Pokégear for a couple of minutes, Crystal finally made up her mind. She sat up on her bed and called Silver.

* * *

**There. A chapter that didn't really have an evil ending. I think… I'll have the evil endings for chapters that end a particular segment. … Like next chapter…**

**Note: the third paragraph in this chapter is **_**specially **_**(not a typo) redundant. Why? Take a guess. That paragraph has the titles to all of S-EARL, in order of creation. It was very painful (admittedly), so I will not try it again. That paragraph and the one before contains significant amount of the phrase "special day" because SL's first title idea was "Special Days". That title was scrapped and I have no regrets. S-EARD? That's ridiculous.**


	9. Unwanted Interference

**I'm not sure if a lot of people noticed, but there was another SA reference in the last chapter. Read Gold's debut of SA then reread his debut in SL.**

**It seems that there were some clarity issues on the requirement of becoming a faithful reviewer. It's probably my fault (whoops). The requirement has been reworded to remove any issues.**

**Also, for those who want to see the hostage problem that Crystal was involved in, SR #021 will be based on that. It was a chapter that's been in the making for a while (never got to completing it though), as it was supposed to be SE #034. It didn't quite work out for SE, as it basically had no pairing worthy scene.**

**Segment: Gold & Crystal.**

* * *

Chapter 9: Unwanted Interference

April 21, somewhere in Johto, 6:00 am…

Silver woke up from his sleep when something hard suddenly fell onto his face. He opened his eyes and saw his Weavile looking down at him from the small table next to his bed with a terribly apologetic expression. Silver took a quick look around and spotted a hard-covered book lying next to the bed. He noticed that it was the same one he had been reading before going to sleep the previous night. He picked it up and saw some scratches on the cover… It seemed that the Weavile was playing with it and accidentally dropped it on his face. But more importantly, the Sharp Claw Pokémon had put lots of _scratch marks_ on the book he had borrowed from Blue. It was her favorite book, and Silver had borrowed it to see why she liked it so much (he still had no idea despite reading over 75% of it. The book was boring as fu-).

"This book is not a toy," the Johto Dex Holder said with a stern look. "This is sis's _favorite_ book, and you put scratches all over it! She's not going to be happy!" He reached into his bag and took out a book that Gold gave him the last time he saw the goggled boy. Silver didn't even bother opening it. It was some guide book about picking up girls. Silver would've tossed it in the garbage if Gold didn't want it back. He also would've returned it immediately if the goggled boy didn't _demand_ that he take at least 3 days with the book. Silver tossed the book to his Weavile. The Sharp Claw Pokémon caught it and by doing so, accidentally punctured the covers with its claws. "Play with that. Make as many scratches and cuts as you want, but leave it in one piece."

Silver glanced at the clock and proceeded to go back to sleep. He still had two hours until his normal waking time, and he intended to use every second of it sleeping.

Unfortunately for him, he woke up an hour later. But this time, it was because of a nightmare. In that dream, he watched Blue as she was kidnapped again by Ho-oh. She fought back this time, and managed to free herself… right next to the top floor of the Tin Tower. Silver could only watch as Blue plummeted to her death, but thankfully, he snapped awake just before she hit the ground.

Silver quickly calmed down his breaths. It was just a dream… a horrible dream. He glanced at the clock again and tried to sleep until 8. But this time, he couldn't sleep because of that nightmare. With a sigh, he shut off his alarm clock and got out of his bed.

"Stupid dream," he grumbled silently as he made his bed. "This is going to be a _bad_ day…"

Silver contemplated in calling Blue to make sure she was alright. After that horrible, horrible nightmare (he did NOT like thinking about anything bad happening to Blue), he felt it was important to talk to her. But since it was still 7 in the morning, he couldn't call her, as she would still be in deep sleep. And the Kanto Dex Holder was not very kind to those unfortunate beings who would dare wake her up from her "beauty sleep".

Silver finished making his bed and cleaning up all traces of his visit in his hideout in a classified location in Johto. He was about to pack up and leave for breakfast when he spotted his Weavile. It seemed that it had accidentally torn Gold's book into three pieces, thus inadvertently breaking his order to keep it in one piece.

There were pieces of torn paper lying strewn about on the floor. Silver sighed and returned his Weavile so it wouldn't harm any more books. He didn't really care about Gold's book being shredded, but he did care about having to clean up all those book pieces. After all, he didn't like leaving ANY trace of his visit anywhere, in case someone tried to follow him. Paranoid? Perhaps. But with an experience of being kidnapped AND being chased by police (not to mention the possibility of someone from Team Rocket stalking him), Silver didn't like taking any chances.

After cleaning up everything again, Silver put the three large chunks of Gold's book in his bag. He was going to give the pieces back to their owner and let the idiot tape it up on his own time.

Silver's determined schedule was quite simple. He was having a bad day so far, so he was going to limit his interactions with human beings. After breakfast, he was going to go somewhere and train all day long. Route 45 seemed to be a nice choice, as it wasn't too far from a city, but isolated enough to be completely alone.

Breakfast… didn't go so well for him either. Having no food in his bag, Silver had no choice but to eat at some food place. Though the meal wasn't bad, someone had accidentally tripped and spilled hot coffee on him. His crappy day had just become crappier.

The training session he had wasn't bad. Sure, his Feraligatr missed every single Aqua Tail attempt (Waterfall was _definitely_ better, apparently), but the session wasn't _terrible_. Lunch was awful. It seemed that wherever he went, some clumsy guy was there with him. This time, said clumsy customer tripped and spilled _iced_ coffee on him.

After that lunch, Silver returned to Route 45 for more training. This time, he was chased by a _huge_ group of Gravelers, which were all very pissed off from the Johto Dex Holder's ruthless pummeling of so many of their kind. Silver had to fight for a couple of hours to get away from them.

When the group of Gravelers finally backed off, Silver found himself back in Blackthorn City. It was only 4 pm, but the Johto Dex Holder wanted to do nothing else but sleep. So far, he had a book dropped on this face, had a terrible nightmare, had to clean up his secret base twice, had two 'showers' of coffee (one scalding hot, the other icy cold), had a quite unproductive training session, _and_ got chased around by a huge angry mob of Gravelers.

With a long sigh, Silver prepared to go to his nearest hideout to sleep when his Pokégear started to vibrate. He looked at it and noticed that Crystal was calling him.

"Yeah, what is it?" he asked in a tired voice after a sigh upon answering the call.

"Hi, Silver. It's Crys calling," Crystal said with an equally tired voice. "I… um… need some company. Could you come over right now?"

"Listen, Crys," Silver said with another sigh. "I'm having a _terrible_ day so far and I-"

"Please, Silver," the Johto girl said with a sigh of her own. "I… was held at knife point today and I really need some company."

"… Alright then… I'll be there shortly…"

Silver hung up and sent out his Honchkrow. Though he wanted to go to his secret base and just sleep, since Crystal apparently needed him for comfort (though he wondered why she would ask _him_ and not Gold), he had no choice but to go and cheer her up. Maybe she would feel better if he told her about his crappy, crappy, day.

…

An hour later, Violet City, 5:00 pm…

…

Crystal stared through the windows in her bedroom, waiting for Silver to arrive. He did sound a little worried when she told him of her hostage event. She didn't tell him the _real_ reason why she wanted him over. If she did, then Silver would surely stay the hell away from her at all costs. After all, her plan did involve dragging him into a mess that he would absolutely _hate_ being a part of.

Before long, a Honchkrow started to land in her neighborhood. Crystal simply watched Silver as he returned his aerial transport Pokémon. She wondered whether her friend remembered where she lived. He had been in her home once after that Arceus event a year ago.

She smiled when Silver started to glance around. It seemed that he didn't know where her house was after all. But it was funny watching him wander around aimlessly. Crystal soon headed out of her house and waved at Silver to get his attention. She led him into her house and towards her room.

"So… you were held at knife point?" Silver asked as he sat on a chair.

Crystal sat on her bed and looked at him. "Yeah… An attempted murderer broke into the orphanage I was volunteering at and tried to hold me hostage."

"So… are you okay?" her friend asked with a worried tone. Crystal nodded but didn't say anything. "If you need anything, I'll gladly help out."

The girl smiled at him as she nodded again. "I do need your help, Silver."

"Okay, what do you need?"

"It's not related to the hostage event though," Crystal said. "And it's why I called you over."

Silver saw her serious expression and nodded. "Okay." He did wonder what she was about to tell him, though he did have a sinking feeling of what it was though…

"I want you to keep this a secret at all times, alright?" Crystal said nervously. "I'm… in love with Gold," she mumbled out as her cheeks turned bright red.

Silver looked horrified. "This is going exactly where I think it is, isn't it?"

Crystal rose to her feet and started to take a few steps towards the door. "And I really need your help here. He doesn't know that I love him yet, but I can't tell him either."

Silver attempted to run towards the door but Crystal had already blocked the doorway. It appeared that she had predicted him fleeing and had prematurely moved off of her bed so she could 'trap' him. "Why me, Crys?" he asked her with a groan. "Why not get sis to help you?"

"Blue can't help me here," Crystal said.

"If sis can't help, what can I do?"

Crystal took a deep breath to calm herself down first. "I do have a plan, but I need your help and no one else's."

'_I have a bad feeling about this… If she wants me to go spy on Gold or get me to talk to him and lead the conversa-_'

"Gold is on a date with some girl," Crystal started.

"And you want me to sabotage the date?"

"No. But I do feel a little… _jealous_. What I want to do is see if Gold would feel the same way. So… I want you to pretend that you're going out with me in front of Gold so that I'll be able to check whether he likes me at all."

Silver put a hand on his head as he groaned again. '_This is worse than I thought!_' "This day just keeps getting worse!"

"Please, Silver," Crystal begged in a cute voice.

Silver stared at her in horror. She was biting her lower lip a little and… batting her eyelashes. She was using _Cute Charm_ against him… Silver let out another long groan and proceeded to lightly pound the wall with his hand in agony.

"… I knew I should've stayed in bed this morning…" he grumbled out.

"So will you help me?"

Silver avoided eye contact. "Two conditions."

"And they are?"

"One, sis must _never_ find out, and two, you will _not_ ask me to do serious things."

Crystal thought for a second before she nodded. "Okay. Deal." She stopped using _Cute Charm_ and simply walked up to him and hugged him. "Thanks, Silver." Her friend remained frozen. "Loosen up. Consider this to be a practice for the real acting."

Silver groaned again and moved his arms up to hug her. His motions seemed almost robotic and ridiculously awkward. His embrace had no warmth whatsoever and Crystal noticed that his expression was absolutely rigid. She released her embrace and took a step backwards.

"Why won't you relax, Silver?" she asked. "If you're like this, then Gold is going to find out that you're only pretending."

"Uh… sorry? I just… never thought something like this could ever happen."

Crystal put her arms behind her back and looked into Silver's eyes. His eyes met hers for a split second before he looked away. He eyed the windows, trying to guess its thickness and height off the ground.

"Do you think I'm… pretty?" Crystal asked. "Do you think I'm attractive?"

Silver began to lightly ram his head into the wall. '_What a day! Could this possibly get any worse?!_' Crystal pulled him away from the wall and forced him to face her.

"Well? Answer me."

"… This isn't fair, Crys," Silver groaned out. "Don't do this to me…"

"Just answer," Crystal said. "If you don't answer, then I guess you don't think I'm pretty or attractive. I guess that's why Gold doesn't like me."

Silver let out a long sigh and ran his gloved hands through his hair. "How did I get mixed up in this?!" '_Ah, the hell with it._' "Yes, I think you're pretty and attractive."

The girl grinned. "Well, great then! Let's go find Gold right now!"

"Say what?"

"Gold is in this city somewhere with his date. He said that she was waiting for him in the Pokémon Center, and knowing Gold, he won't go too far from there. And I think I know what restaurant he went to. I want to see his date to see exactly who I'm competing against, and this will be a great time for me to check whether he's jealous at all."

Silver stared at her with his mouth open in shock. "… Today? But… that wasn't a part of the deal! I thought I'd have time to prepare myself!"

"You'll have time on our way there. So let's go! I have to test this before Gold falls for that other girl!"

Without even waiting for him to respond, Crystal grabbed her bag and headed downstairs. Silver slammed his head on the wall again before he reluctantly followed.

"Something tells me this deal is going to get worse and worse…"

* * *

**No, for once, I did not end a segment in an evil cliffhanger way. Enjoy this non-evil ending while you can. Because the evilness will be back!**

**Note: for Silver's nightmare, I said Tin Tower. I am well aware that in HGSS games, it's called Bell Tower. But for the same reason as SA (and everything else too), I am sticking with Tin Tower. It was Tin Tower once in GSC, and it'll ALWAYS remain as such for me. And just like I said in SA, we already have a Sprout Tower. We don't need a Bell Tower because Bellsprouts suck horribly. Stupid acid spewing… bean sprout thing…**

**Also note that in Silver's training session, I said that Waterfall was definitely better than Aqua Tail. That's because I freaking hate Aqua Tail. Accuracy 90 attack… hits 4 times on 10 tries. It's like a weaker Focus Blast. For those who played the 4****th**** and 5****th**** Generation games, you'd know that Focus Blast never hits anything despite having 70 accuracy. As such, whenever I can, I take Waterfall over Aqua Tail. 10 less power for 100 accuracy and a chance to force the opponent to flinch.**

**And as of this chapter, S-EARL has reached 90 chapters in total. Holy crap! And the chapter counts of S-EARL are at 36, 27, 18, and 9, forming the pattern of decreasing multiples of 9 that I was aiming for since the end of SR's Containment series. Now the fast updates are OVER! Expect nothing until 2013.**

**Next up: an even numbered chapter. **_**"You know the music. Time to dance."**_


	10. New Region

**Vote results: 2 for Ruby & Sapphire, 1 for Diamond & Platinum, 1 for Gold & Crystal, 1 for original plans, and… hold on… **_**7**_** no-votes. So with a whopping total of 10 votes, SL #010 is the start of the Ruby & Sapphire segment. Hell, it's about time.**

**For those who may be wondering why your vote wasn't put into consideration despite being a faithful reviewer, it's probably because you voted on the wrong chapter. Because I don't know who will have their status revoked by the time the vote results come around, I will be ignoring all votes during the even-numbered chapters.**

**Note: regarding the recent developments, standard protocol is in effect. S-EARL will ignore everything except the updated game mechanics until Pokémon Special progresses to Generation VI. It doesn't matter if Pokémon Special doesn't actually progress there until long after XY(Z?) is released. In all practicality, X and Y (predicted nicknames for the new Dex Holders, which I also assume will be the shortened version of their actual names, like N) will not appear in SE, SA, or SL. At best, they will be in SR (after a 15 on 2 mass-bullying/trick/indoctrination/"welcoming"), and the successor to SA/SL. But until I know their in-manga names, personality, etc, they will not even be mentioned anywhere in all of S-EARL.**

**Oh, in case you haven't heard, Generation VI is inbound (probably should've said this **_**before**_** the note). Pokémon XY. Seeing how it's on the 3DS, I assume that this time, there will be a third version (Z) to match the 3D coordinate axes. Of course, the designers could decide to screw with the predictions and make X2Y2 or nothing at all. If the game designers wanted to make the probable third game less obvious, they could've just named the games based on the spherical coordinate system, but oh well. Then again, "Pokémon R and Theta" does sound ridiculous.**

**Segment: Ruby & Sapphire.**

* * *

Chapter 10: New Region

April 21, Castelia City, Unova, 7 pm…

"So… _this_ is Unova."

"Those are some tall, _tall_ buildings. This city is HUGE!"

"Sapphire, stop being such a tourist."

"I _am_ a tourist, Ruby! And so are you!"

"Get down from that street lamp! You're making a scene! And remember, we're here for a reason."

"Yeah, yeah. Relax, you sissy. I'll take you to that stupid music thing."

Sapphire jumped down from the street lamp and landed in front of Ruby. A few people gathered around the two Hoenn Dex Holders, wondering who this wild girl was. Ruby did his best to appear as if he had absolutely nothing to do with Sapphire. But the girl busted his cover pretty quickly. She put an arm around his shoulders.

"Alright then, let's go to New Mombasa."

"_Nim_basa," Ruby corrected.

"Whatever." Sapphire sent out her Tropius in the middle of the street outside the harbor and hopped on. "Well? Come on! Let's get this thing over with. I want to do some sightseeing!"

Ruby sighed as he climbed onto the Tropius. A lot of people were gathered now, wondering who would release a Pokémon in the middle of a crowd that was trying to exit the harbor. Perhaps asking Sapphire to accompany him wasn't the best choice. But he had no other alternatives, as she was the only one with an aerial transport Pokémon. And she probably wouldn't have lent Tropius to him for an extended period of time. Then again, the company wasn't that bad. And something told him that if he left without her, she'd hunt him down and kill him…

As the Tropius lifted off and headed towards Nimbasa City, Sapphire looked over to the side and saw an eagle-like Pokémon flying southeast. She looked at it carefully and spotted two people riding it. There was a girl holding onto it on top and a boy being carried by the Pokémon.

'_Wow. That's a Pokémon I never saw before. Cool._'

Within half an hour, the two Hoenn Dex Holders arrived at Nimbasa City. The Tropius stayed high above the city so that the two Dex Holders could get a good view of the heart of entertainment.

"Wow. This is a big city," Ruby muttered.

"The view is so nice," Sapphire said with a smile. "And is that an amusement park over there?"

"We'll go there after we're done with the Pokémon Musical," Ruby said. "Set down over there."

"… Jerk. You're no fun," Sapphire said with a sigh.

The Tropius soon landed next to the large sports dome. Sapphire glanced at the dome once before focusing her attention on the building Ruby was looking at.

"That's the building," he said.

"How do you know?"

Ruby looked at her as if she said something incredibly stupid. "… Because it _says_ 'Musical' on it?"

Sapphire then realized that the building really had 'Musical' in big letters in the front.

"Oh. I didn't see it," she said as she blushed in embarrassment. She examined the Musical building closely and noticed something odd. "Hey Ruby, isn't the Musical supposed to be loud?"

"Yeah. So?"

"I'm not hearing anything going on in there." Sapphire closed her eyes and focused on her hearing. She soon ran towards the building and sniffed around a little.

Ruby ran up to her. "Sapphire, stop doing things that'll attract the wrong attention."

"It's not like I'm sniffing the _ground_ in the middle of a street," she said as she continued to sniff at the air. She soon stopped and looked at the Musical building. "I don't think anyone's in there."

"Huh…"

Ruby approached the front door and tried to open it. It was locked. Sapphire thought for a second while the boy stood dumbfounded.

"Is it possible that it just closed for the day?" she suggested.

Ruby shook his head. "No. The brochure I read explicitly stated that the Musical opens at 6 in the morning and closes at midnight."

Sapphire crossed her arms and grinned. "Well, since the Musical is closed, you know what that means, don't you?" '_Time to do some sightseeing! And that amusement park!_'

Ruby smiled. "Yep. We ask the people of Nimbasa for information! I want to know what happened!"

Sapphire's grin faded and she sighed. "Ah, hell… Fine. Whatever."

"Let's ask the Gym Leader," Ruby said. "A Gym Leader is supposed to know just about everything in their city."

The two Hoenn Dex Holders climbed back onto the Tropius and headed towards the Gym. Sapphire took this opportunity to do some more midair sightseeing. She purposely had Tropius slow down so that she could just look around a bit more. But Ruby noticed and she had no choice but to hurry it up.

"Holy crap," Sapphire muttered as the Tropius approached the Nimbasa City Gym. "That Gym is huge! You could probably fit all 8 Hoenn Gyms in there!"

"… We're going to have a hell of a time looking for the Gym Leader in there…"

The two Dex Holders soon entered the Gym and immediately froze.

"… What the hell," Sapphire muttered. "Who puts a rollercoaster _inside_ a Gym?!"

"I can't see the opposite end of this place," Ruby said as he squinted. "I don't even know where to begin looking for the Gym Leader."

"Who cares? Let's ride!" Sapphire said excitedly as she jumped up and down.

"No way," Ruby said as he shook his head. "That'll mess up my hair and clothes."

Sapphire groaned and smacked a hand over her face. "You freaking sissy…"

"If you're looking for the Gym Leader," said the Gym's guide from next to a statue. "She's not here. She's currently inside the new Gym."

"A _new_ Gym?" Sapphire muttered. "She must be one extravagant Gym Leader."

Ruby nodded. He then looked over at her in shock. "I must say. I'm surprised that you even know that word."

Sapphire gritted her teeth as she glared at Ruby. "I'm not an idiot you arrogant ass."

The boy laughed as he put a hand on her shoulder. "Of course not. I wouldn't hang around with you if you were, now would I?" He gave her a pat on the shoulder before heading outside. "Come on, Sapphire. Let's go find this profligate Gym Leader."

The girl's boiling rage melted away very quickly and she followed. Sure, Ruby may taunt her once every 5 seconds, but she knows that he doesn't mean it and still cares for her deeply. Even if he avoids talking about _that event_ like the plague… One day, though…

The new Gym soon came into the view of the two Hoenn Dex Holders. This new Gym wasn't nearly as large and seemed like a regular Gym… until they entered.

"… This is a Gym?" Sapphire muttered.

"Wow. A _fashion show_!" Ruby exclaimed excitedly.

Sapphire narrowed her eyes as Ruby stared at the various fashion models. If she didn't know him any better, she'd say that he was staring at the models themselves rather than their clothes. She grabbed him by the ear (a technique she saw Crystal using against Gold at one point in the Battle Frontier) and dragged him down the walkway, towards the presumed Gym Leader.

"Ow, ow, ow… Sapphire, my ear is a delicate thing," Ruby complained. "_Stop crushing it_!"

The girl ignored him and continued to walk. The handful of models on the walkway saw her approach.

"Oh, a challenger!" they exclaimed. "You'll have to beat us fir-"

"Out of the way!" Sapphire yelled. "I'm not here to challenge the Gym Leader!"

The models scurried away and another one appeared, this one wearing a ridiculous yellow fur… wool… thing.

"Oh? You are not here to challenge my Gym?"

"… You're the Gym Leader?" Sapphire asked.

"Yes. I am Elesa, the Gym Leader if Nimbasa City."

"Beautiful!" Ruby exclaimed, and Sapphire instantly turned to glare at him.

His eyes were sparkling as he stared at Elesa and he started to walk closer. In that instant, Sapphire slammed the back of her fist into his forehead (protected by the soft padding on his hat), sending him flying several meters backwards.

"If you are not here to challenge my Gym, then what are you here for?" Elesa asked after watching Ruby fly away.

"Well, that jerk and I came here from Hoenn so that he could participate in this Pokémon Musical thing," Sapphire started. "But the Musical building seems closed, so we came here to see if you knew what happened."

Elesa's eyes narrowed a little. "Of course I know what happened. But the person who started the Musical is a friend of mine. And she needs help at the moment. You are not the first who came to my Gym looking for her. And I will not be giving away her whereabouts easily. If you can beat me in a battle, then I will give you a hint."

Sapphire shrugged. "Alright then." She dropped down to all fours and took out a Pokéball. "Let's go!"

Several meters behind, Ruby slowly sat up with his hands pressed firmly against his forehead. Instantly, he found himself surrounded by fashion models wearing beautiful attires. He immediately reached into his bag and took out his Pokéballs, a camera, and his photo album.

"This has got to be in my records!" he exclaimed.

"Don't you want to see your barbaric friend battle the Gym Leader?" one of the models asked.

"She's only like that at certain times," Ruby said dismissively. "Other times, she's quite… docile."

The models turned to stare at Sapphire, who was on all fours, swiftly dodging attacks and yelling out attacks of her own. 'Docile' didn't seem to apply to her at all.

"Anyways," Ruby continued as he set up. "She'll win for sure. No doubt." His eyes instantly began to sparkle as he looked at the fashion models. "However! Could you pose for the camera with my Pokémon? This will be great for my future Contests!"

As Ruby spent time taking photo after photo of the fashion models in various poses alongside his Pokémon, Sapphire stood behind him with her arms crossed, having beaten Elesa and gotten the hint. The girl decided to wait until Ruby realized her presence.

For 10 minutes, Sapphire stood waiting. But it seemed like Ruby was going to take all night with this, so she decided to intervene. She unstrapped the bag around her waist and after hefting it a little, whacked him on the side of the head with it, sending him flying another couple of meters

"Ow! Sapphire, what the hell!" Ruby yelled as he slowly got back to his original position.

"I got the hint of the whereabouts of the person who started the Pokémon Musical," Sapphire said with a smile. "So let's get going."

Sapphire grinned in satisfaction as Ruby packed up while continuously grumbling. Once the boy finished packing up his photo album, the girl dragged him outside.

"Alright… so where are we going?" he asked once he exited the Gym.

"We're going to Mistralton City," Sapphire answered. "Apparently the creator of the Pokémon Musical was last seen in Route 7 just north of the city. The Gym Leader of Nimbasa suggests we talk to the Gym Leader of Mistralton to find out about her whereabouts."

…

Mistralton City, 9 pm…

…

Ruby and Sapphire stood outside the Mistralton City Gym. Ruby was holding a little umbrella over his head while Sapphire simply stood under the pounding rain.

"So… this is the Gym, huh? It looks more like a hangar," Sapphire said as she stretched her arms.

"Well, let's go in already. Avoid this downpour," Ruby said as he ran into the Gym.

Sapphire rolled her eyes and followed. "We've both been through worse downpours before, you sissy."

Both Hoenn Dex Holders froze upon seeing the Mistralton City Gym's layout. Sapphire soon jumped in joy while Ruby remained petrified.

"… Mancannons?" he muttered in shock. "I'm not going in there! I'll die!"

"Then step aside and let the girl through!" Sapphire said excitedly.

Ruby simply stood back and watched as Sapphire hopped into the first mancannon. Deciding to let Sapphire have her fun, he sat down on a bench near the entrance of the Gym and began arranging the photos he took in Nimbasa City Gym into his photo album. All he could hear was Sapphire's excited squeals as she was launched from one mancannon and the next. She suddenly let out a surprised and slightly pained shriek and Ruby looked up. Apparently one mancannon was aimed at a wall… that was covered in soft padding, but still. A _wall_ made of steel. And the mancannon was aimed pretty high up at that wall.

Sapphire groaned as she put a hand on her rear. The face-first splat into the 'soft' padding wasn't nice, and that 2~3 meter fall wasn't nice either. The 'soft' padding on the floor wasn't that great.

"Ow, my ass…" she muttered as she walked up to the Gym Leader. "That soft padding needs improvement!" she said to the Gym Leader who was watching her.

"Oh, I'm going to be changing the layout pretty soon," the Gym Leader answered. "Come back in a week or so, and things will be very different. I'm Skyla, by the way. Mistralton City's Gym Leader."

Sapphire proceeded to explain why she was there. Skyla listened attentively and her expression soon hardened.

"Oh, I see. You're here looking for her… Her friend came earlier today and he probably took her home. I know that she's in trouble as I had quite a few people looking for her already. Now, I can't let everyone know her whereabouts. So, like Elesa, you're going to have to beat me in a battle to prove your worth. Then I'll tell you where she might have gone."

Sapphire sighed and prepared to battle. "… Alright. Let's roll."

…

10 minutes later…

…

Ruby looked up from his photo album just in time to see Sapphire flying closer. She hit the 'soft' padding and rolled to lessen the impact. She ended up on her back directly in front of his feet.

"So, how'd it go?" Ruby asked as he helped her back to her feet.

"The one we're looking for headed to Nuvema Town with a guy named Black," Sapphire said with a grunt. "Damn, they _really_ need to improve this Gym's layout…"

…

Nuvema Town, 11:30 pm…

…

Ruby and Sapphire hopped off of Tropius (again) and stared at the building in front of them. Professor Juniper's lab… for once, the building didn't look too different from its Hoenn counterpart. Both Hoenn Dex Holders have been in and out of Professor Birch's lab to know that.

"We can't talk to this professor at this time," Ruby said. "It's nearly midnight. We should come back in the morning."

"Fine by me," Sapphire said with a yawn. She approached the nearest tree and began to climb.

'_Oh crap…_' "You're not suggesting we sleep in the trees, are you?"

"Suck it up, you sissy," Sapphire said as she grabbed onto a thick branch. "You've slept on a tree branch once before, don't you remember? At Mirage Island?"

"… Where?"

Sapphire growled in anger and hurled a thick piece of wood at him, which he promptly dodged. "Just shut up and go to sleep."

Ruby grumbled as he approached the tree. He climbed up as well and soon reached the thick branch that Sapphire was currently lying on. He positioned himself as comfortable as possible without the risk of falling off.

"Well, for tonight and hopefully tonight only, I'll sleep like a barbarian. If I fall off… well, I hope you'll wake up in time to catch me."

Sapphire sat up and reached into her bag. "I got something that'll help you sleep knowing that you won't fall off and break a bone or two."

"Hm? What's that?"

Much to Ruby's dismay and horror, Sapphire pulled out… the length of vine she always carried around. Before he could even try to convince her out of it, she simply tied him onto the tree branch.

"There. Now you _can't_ fall off! Good night, you sissy."

"… Thanks. Good night, you barbarian."

Next morning, the two Hoenn Dex Holders knocked on the door to Professor Juniper's house. The professor gladly told them the address of Black's house when they showed her their Pokédex. Sapphire continuously grumbled about chasing all over a foreign region looking for one person and Ruby did his best to calm her down. He promised her that he was going to take her somewhere fun afterwards. It was like calming down a child… who could break bones with a punch. Stay on her good side and nothing bad happens. Get on her bad side and…

The two Hoenn Dex Holders soon found the house they were looking for. The house had the correct address given and seemed to match the given description.

"This looks like the place," Ruby said as he took a brief look around. He walked up to the front door and rang the doorbell.

"That's not the way to get attention," Sapphire said with a sigh. Having lost the patience from this wild chase, she slammed her fist on the door repeatedly.

"Whoa! Hey, that'll only give them hostility!" Ruby said as he grabbed her by her wrist.

She pulled her hand back and crossed her arms. "I'm getting tired of this. Come on! I didn't come all this way just to hunt down this one person for some music thing. I want to explore places! Maybe even do some researching for papa!"

"… Research?"

Sapphire's eyes started to twitch slightly. "You forgot, didn't you? I help papa with his research on wild Pokémon. I've covered just about all there is to cover in Hoenn. But this is a new region. I want to travel around and see the habitats of wild Pokémon here."

"Maybe this president of the BW Agency can help us," Ruby said. "Why not get a local to point out interesting areas?"

"But you're trying to find her just so you can do that stupid music thing!"

"It's not stupid!" Ruby argued. "It's called _class_, you barbarian. It's like the Pokémon Contests back in Hoenn. It brings out the finer class of Pokémon. All you care about is what part of a Pokémon can be used as a cudgel in barbaric battles."

Sapphire was about to say something when the door opened. She saw a boy roughly the same age as her looking at her and Ruby suspiciously. She straightened her posture so that she could prove to the jerk Ruby that she wasn't barbaric. But she had absolutely no idea how other girls stood normally, so she ended up crossing her arms instead.

Ruby cleared his throat and took a glance at Sapphire. She met his eyes and understood what he was thinking.

'_Leave the talking to the civilized person_.'

Sapphire sighed again and slowly rotated her neck, feeling the slight cracks as she did so. Fine. She'd let the _civilized_ person do the talking. If that failed, there was always her method.

"Hello," Ruby said to the boy. "My name is Ruby, and this is Sapphire. We are here to ask you if you know the whereabouts of the president of the BW Agency."

Sapphire resisted the urge to snort in disgust. She could _feel_ Ruby's smugness. He was trying to prove to her that he was a much better talker. But she had to admit that he _was_ better than her at talking. But something felt odd. She could feel the hostility coming from the unfamiliar boy and he seemed to be gripping something in his pockets.

Just then, the boy threw a Pokéball at the ground between them. And in a blink of an eye, a flaming bear-pig thing was looming over the two Hoenn Dex Holders, angrily breathing out smoke.

"Hammer Arm!" the boy suddenly ordered.

The flaming bear-pig Pokémon raised a thick cudgel of an arm and swung it downwards at Ruby as hard as it could muster…

* * *

**Finally. SL has at least 1 chapter of EVERY storyline. Huzzah.**


	11. Journey's Start

**I hope no one voted last chapter. Oh wait, some did! Now, vote **_**this**_** chapter, and **_**not**_** the next.**

**SL's Ruby & Sapphire segment will probably focus more on Ruby and Sapphire's interactions with each other than anything else. This is because SL is the only place in all of S-EARL where that can happen. SE has no space until its conclusion (unless I make a successor), SA… has its obvious reasons, and SR doesn't focus on such a thing. As such, SL's Ruby & Sapphire segment may go a little slow compared to the others.**

**Segment: Ruby & Sapphire.**

* * *

Chapter 11: Journey's Start

April 22, Nuvema Town, Unova, 8:30 am…

The flaming bear-pig Pokémon swung its thick cudgel of an arm at Ruby as hard as it could muster. The Dex Holder simply sidestepped to avoid the attack, but it didn't seem necessary. Sapphire had grabbed the arm of the Pokémon with one hand and simply held it up. The Pokémon and its trainer looked very surprised. The Pokémon glanced back at its trainer, wondering what it should do. Taking this time, Sapphire lifted it high above her head and glared at its trainer.

The trainer seemed to snap out of his shock and was about to order something when Sapphire threw the Pokémon roughly 20 meters away. The Unova boy gritted his teeth and took out two more Pokéballs. Sapphire reached into her bag for one of her own and glanced at Ruby, who didn't seem to be paying any attention. She roughly nudged him in the ribs with an elbow.

"Ow… Before you ask, I'm not going to participate in this random savage fight," Ruby said as he rubbed his side. "Besides, I don't battle in front of strangers."

Sapphire growled at him. "You've done it once before, and you'll do it again! My Pokémon are a little tired from beating two Gym Leaders without any preparation, so I'll need every able body I can get. Even yours."

"I'm not sure that phrase applies here, Sapphire."

"Shut it and send out your Pokémon already. Your method failed, so we're using mine. We'll beat the sh*t out of this kid and maybe he'll be willing to answer a few questions. Like… why he decided to attack us for absolutely no reason."

Ruby sighed. "… So you're just going to beat the information out of him?"

"Yeah. The old fashioned way. He started it!"

"Just so you know," Ruby said to the Unova boy. "This idea is not mine. It's hers."

The Unova boy sent out an eagle like Pokémon and a giant spider like one. Sapphire sent out her Blaziken and Ruby sent out his Swampert. But just as the battle was about to start, the Unova boy's flaming bear-pig Pokémon came running back, more pissed off than ever.

Sapphire glanced at it and grinned. "Alright! I could use some damn stress relief!" She unstrapped her bag around her waist and let it fall to the ground. Ruby glanced at the dirt now on the yellow bag and grunted slightly. Sapphire looked over at him. "You take care of the double battle. I'm sure you can handle it."

Ruby sighed. "Whatever. Too late to stop now. Alright then. Have fun and be careful."

Sapphire stretched her arms and legs and looked at the flaming bear-pig Pokémon intently. It seemed a little confused at first, but decided to fight her anyways. It charged straight towards her and she charged straight towards it at the same time.

The Pokémon swung its thick arms at her to try to knock her away. However, when it came close, she simply dropkicked it in the legs, making it fall. The Pokémon soon got back up and glared at her, _really_ pissed off now. Sapphire grinned and with her hands, signaled it to bring it on.

At the same time, Ruby watched with disinterest as the Unova boy ordered his Pokémon to attack. He didn't like battling (in front of strangers no less) and he actually intended to support Sapphire in the double battle and let her do all the work. But since she technically abandoned him so she could fight, he had no choice but to actually do something.

To start, Ruby examined the two opposing Pokémon. The eagle like one seemed quite strong physically. No doubt it was going to rely on close quarters fight. The spider like one had multiple eyes, giving it a wide view. It didn't seem to be physically strong, so it would most likely attack from a distance. The multitude of eyes set off a small alarm in Ruby's mind.

'_Compoundeyes… That could be a problem. And those 6 eyes are disgusting and unnerving._' He looked over at his Swampert and Sapphire's Blaziken. '_Alright. Sapphire's Blaziken can handle that yellow spider thing, and Zuzu can handle that eagle. That eagle is probably going to swoop down to attack, so I'll use that._' He looked over at the Blaziken to give it orders. '_… What did Sapphire call her Blaziken again? Crap… Oh well._' "Flamethrower at the spider!"

During her fight with the flaming bear-pig Pokémon, Sapphire took a look back at Ruby to make sure he was doing fine. He didn't seem like he was having fun, but he seemed to be in full control of the battle. The Pokémon she was fighting tried to take advantage of her distraction and tried to grab her. Sapphire ducked out of its reach and when it stumbled closer, delivered an uppercut.

Deciding that just punching and kicking this thing wasn't going to subdue it, Sapphire prepared herself for her next move. When it came recklessly charging with its head lowered for a Head Smash, she crouched, grabbed onto the charging Pokémon with both her arms and lifted it above the ground. She ran directly into a tree while carrying the Pokémon, effectively smashing it into the tree.

The flaming bear-pig Pokémon smashed its fists into her back, which hurt like hell. Sapphire clenched her teeth and slammed it onto the ground as hard as she could manage. She then immediately jumped onto it and delivered a series of punches to its face. It punched her off, which also hurt, and tried to get back up. Sapphire kicked it on the head, knocking it back down. Once the Pokémon was unable to fight anymore, she took a few seconds to catch her breaths and recover a little from those hits before heading over towards Ruby, who seemed to have won the battle already. But it seemed that the Unova boy still had additional Pokémon and he was willing to fight until he dropped.

But before the second battle could start, the door to the Unova boy's house opened and a girl appeared. Ruby looked at the girl and examined her clothes carefully. Sapphire sincerely hoped that he was not getting any ideas for _her_ next attire. The Unova girl seemed to have been crying, as she still seemed to be sniffling a little. But she seemed quite angry as well.

"Fine!" the girl yelled as she sent out her own Pokémon. "You two wanted me, so here I am! But I'm not going without a fight!"

"The hell is wrong with everyone in this region?!" Sapphire yelled as she looked back and forth between the new girl and her green… banana like Pokémon. "It's all battle-first-talk-later!"

Ruby looked up from the Unova girl's clothes and into her eyes from the distance. "Why exactly do you think we're here for you?"

"Of course you're here for me!" the girl spat out. "Everyone has been for the past week! I – I spent my whole life helping you people and one accident happens and all of a sudden you all treat me like a criminal!"

Ruby crossed his arms and thought for a second before he returned his Swampert. Sapphire looked over at him in surprise.

"Ruby, what are you doing?"

"Sapphire, withdraw your Pokémon," Ruby said calmly. "There's clearly a misunderstanding here and remaining battle ready and hostile won't improve the situation."

Sapphire reluctantly returned her Blaziken and looked at the two Unova trainers.

"Who are you two?" the Unova girl asked. She didn't return her Pokémon yet, but didn't appear to be as upset as before. "And what do you want?"

"I'm Ruby and she's Sapphire," Ruby said to the girl. "We're from the region of Hoenn. We came to Unova so I could participate in the Pokémon Musical."

"The Musical is no more. It's closed," the Unova boy said as he took a worried glance at the girl beside him.

"And that's why we're here," Sapphire said. "We want to know why it's closed. Actually, I don't give a damn, but this sissy does. Anyways, at Nimbasa, Elesa told me to look for the president of the BW Agency in Mistralton City. At Mistralton, Skyla told me to go to Nuvema to find someone named Black. And Professor Juniper here told me that Black lived here."

"I'm Black," the Unova boy said as he returned all of his Pokémon.

"Great! So do you know the whereabouts of the president of the BW Agency?" Sapphire asked.

"I should," Black replied. "She's right beside me."

Ruby and Sapphire looked at the Unova girl, dumbfounded for a short while. "… Well, isn't this awkward. We've been asking about the whereabouts of a girl who's right in front of us…"

Before long, the two Hoenn Dex Holders found themselves seated by a dinner table inside Black's house, looking at the two Unova trainers who sat across the table from them. After proper introductions, Black explained to them what happened with the BW Agency recently and therefore why the Pokémon Musical was closed. White looked quite crestfallen at the thought of the downfall of her company and recent events.

Ruby nodded in understanding. "We're real sorry for you. I understand why you were hostile to us."

"So what now?" Sapphire asked as she looked over at Ruby. "… Sightseeing? _Finally_?"

"I guess," Ruby said with a sigh. "But first…" He looked over at Black in a scrutinizing glance. "Professor Juniper told me something interesting about you."

"Oh, _that_ thing," Sapphire muttered.

At the same time, both Hoenn Dex Holders pulled out their Pokédex and showed it to Black. Black looked a little surprised. White looked quite… horrified.

"… You have a Pokédex too? No wonder you were so strong," the boy muttered. "But I never saw those models before."

"Y – You're… Hoenn Dex Holders!" the girl stammered out.

"You heard about them, Miss President?"

"Yes, of course. Before I… lost my company, I did some research. There are a total of 13 before us, Black. They are our seniors." The girl looked over at Ruby and Sapphire. She hastily rose to her feet and bowed politely. "I always wanted to meet you, but… not like this… I'm so sorry for the misunderstanding and for being hostile. I – I didn't know…"

"It's okay," Ruby said.

"… Was I like that when we met our seniors a few years ago?" Sapphire asked Ruby. "Was I that nervous and stammering?"

"Nah," the boy replied after a short moment of thought. "You were overly excited, but you weren't particularly nervous. And besides, things were kind of chaotic, so there really wasn't time for you to be like White here."

"I'm sorry for attacking you too," Black said with a short bow. "Miss President had been getting unwanted visitors recently and I was just protecting her."

"Hear that?" Sapphire yelled as she glared at Ruby. "_He_ protects _her_! So why don't you protect me?!"

"Because you don't _need_ protecting!" Ruby yelled back. "And besides, did I ever abandon you when you needed my help?" Sapphire was about to answer but he cut her off. "On second thought, don't answer that."

"That's right, you jerk."

"Hey, for the record, I didn't _abandon_ you. I just didn't want any part of what you were getting into. But I came back, didn't I?"

Ruby and Sapphire bickered for a little while before they realized they were making a scene in front of their newly found juniors. They both instantly stopped arguing and cleared their throats simultaneously.

"So… White, what are you going to do?" Sapphire asked to break the awkward silence. "Are you just going to stay here forever?"

White looked down and sighed. "I… don't know. I can't stay here like this, but there's nowhere I can go either."

"I think the top priority is to help her get her self confidence back," Ruby said as he crossed his arms. "And that is not something you can gain by hiding inside a house all day."

"What do you suggest?" Black asked.

"White, give yourself a challenge and try to accomplish it," Sapphire said to her junior. "Something like… beating all the Gyms within 80 days or something."

"_Real_ original, Sapphire," Ruby said with a smirk.

"Hey, it's a good challenge!"

Black put an arm around White's shoulders. "What do you say, Miss President? Do you want to try getting all the Gym Badges in Unova?"

White didn't reply but both Ruby and Sapphire could tell that she wasn't considering it deeply.

"Come on, White. You can't stay like this forever," Sapphire said. "You have to face your fears some day. I know I will."

Black suddenly snapped his fingers. "Ah, I got it!" He looked at White excitedly. "Miss President, how would you like to challenge Cheren in a Gym Battle?"

"He's… not a Gym Leader yet, isn't he?" White asked.

"Not yet, but he's trying to become one. Soon, he'll become the Gym Leader of Aspertia City."

"… Aspertia?" White muttered in surprise.

"Why? Do you know that place?"

The girl slowly nodded. "Yes. It's… my home. But… I really don't want to go there. Not like this."

Black nodded in understanding. "Don't worry. Remember, Cheren is here in Nuvema. So you could have a battle with him where you're comfortable and without attracting any attention. It'll be a great practice for both of you."

White soon nodded. "But… let's say I do agree to that Gym Badge challenge. People might not recognize me because I changed my style completely, but what about you? People might still recognize you and they might remember seeing you with me before."

Ruby grinned as he intervened. "Let me worry about that. While you have your practice Gym Battle, I'll make sure your friend here isn't recognizable."

Sapphire rolled her eyes. '_Ruby, don't tell me you're going to ruin our junior's looks…_' Ruby looked over at her as if he heard her thoughts. She ignored him and sighed as she looked at her juniors. "… Prepare to be surprised."

"That settles it, then," Ruby said as he rose to his feet. "White has a practice Gym Battle, I make Black unrecognizable, and we're out of here!"

"Wait," Black said. "I know it's a little much to ask since we just met, but you're our seniors. Could you come with us on the Gym Badge challenge? I think Miss President and I could really use your help."

"What do you think, Sapphire?" Ruby asked. "Do you want to just go home, or help these two?"

Sapphire thought for a second. "Let's help these two. We got nothing better to do anyways. If we follow them, then we'll be able to do some damn sightseeing for once and with people who know this region. And besides, we'll be getting to know our juniors better, now won't we?"

"Alright then, it's decided. We'll go with you," Ruby said to the two Unova Dex Holders.

Both Black and White bowed in gratitude. Soon afterwards, Black went to call his friend, leaving Ruby and Sapphire to look at White in silence. They really didn't know what to say, as they never had a junior before…

Sapphire looked over at Ruby. "I don't know about you, but… now that I have juniors, I suddenly feel… older."

Ruby sighed and nodded. "Yeah. I guess this is how the Kanto guys feel all the time."

"But you know what? We're _still_ on the junior side of the Dex Holders," Sapphire said with a grin. "… Unless there's another batch of Dex Holders we never met. Then we're no longer juniors, but we're not seniors. And only if there's yet another batch we'll be on the senior side. Which won't be for a _long_ while!"

* * *

**Poor Sapphire. When Pokémon Special progresses to XY, she'll be on the senior side…**

**Yes, I'm making another blind prediction. I'm guessing White's hometown is Aspertia City. Black lives in Nuvema, but it's completely unknown where White lives, so I'm taking a guess that her home will be the starting area for BW2.**

**And no evil ending. I'm saving all the evilness for SA, which will be completely unleashed in one chapter. After that, SL will become evil again.**

**Currently, it has been 5 chapters since the last Green & Blue segment, 2 since the last Gold & Crystal segment, 0 since Ruby & Sapphire, 7 since Diamond & Platinum, and 4 since Black & White. So, take your pick.**

**And do not expect any update for 1~2 months. For **_**all**_** of S-EARL. After that time, all of S-EARL will be updated at once (something I want to try, despite its risks). This is the reason behind the 1~2 month break. I need time to complete all four update chapters. For those who are following all of S-EARL, you'll be quite busy in the next update. So have fun.**

**In the meantime, wait patiently. Or reread S-EARL. Spot some errors here and there so I can fix them. Become a faithful reviewer or fix the reasons for you being revoked of that status if you're bored.**


	12. Blackmail

**I know I said there was going to be a 1 to 2 month break before the mass updating, but that was assuming all of S-EARL updates haven't started yet. As it turned out, SA's update was almost done, SL's took like 30 minutes, and SE's was halfway done. So… here's SL #012!**

**Alert: just so you readers know, someone (with permission though) is translating one or more of S-EARL into Vietnamese. Permission was given on January 22, 2013. So keep this in mind in case you hear stuff. Extremely unlikely, but you never know. This note will appear on the most recent chapter of all of S-EARL.**

**Vote results: technically unanimous. 7 votes for Diamond & Platinum, 4 my-votes. So with 11 out of 11 votes, SL #012 is Diamond & Platinum.**

**Segment: Diamond & Platinum.**

* * *

Chapter 12: Blackmail

April 22, Sandgem Town, 7:50 am…

"I… I think I am in love with Pearl…"

Those nightmarish words echoed throughout Diamond's mind. He simply stared at Platinum, unable to believe what was happening. He couldn't feel his heart beating anymore. Just cold nothingness. The world around him seemed to be spinning out of control, making him very nauseous. There was an irrepressible urge to sit down and cry. But he couldn't do that since Platinum was looking at him expectantly.

What the hell was she expecting, anyways? A congratulations? Did she even know the impact of her words? Probably not. Diamond always found it surprising that a girl as smart as Platinum could be so damn blind to things.

Diamond tried to think of what to say to her. He could just walk away and give her a blunt hint that she had just destroyed his world and punched a giant hole in his heart. But as much as she hurt him, he could not bear to hurt her in return.

So instead, he focused on the most prominent emotions from the messy batch he was experiencing. What was the most prominent? Anger, betrayal, despair, sadness, loneliness, and finally, bitter happiness. He would never get the girl he loved. She was now permanently out of reach. He'll just have to be satisfied knowing that she was happy…

"That's… that's great, Lady…" he croaked out. Platinum didn't seem to notice anything. Either her beautiful yet sometimes scary eyes were for display only, or he had better control of his emotions than he thought. "I'm… _happy_ for you."

"Thank you, Diamond," Platinum said with an embarrassed blush. "I would highly appreciate it if you would help me find out if he loves me back."

'_I know for a fact that he doesn't love you the way I do, Lady… Only if I had the courage to tell you…_' "Sure, I'll do my best…"

"Thank you very much," the heiress said happily. "Now, I must go and prepare breakfast. It is my first time and I do not wish to ruin it. So if you could find Pearl and bring him to my…" She trailed off and looked past Diamond at the Sandgem Pokémart. "Oh, never mind. There he is."

Platinum waved at him but Diamond didn't even bother turning to look. Pearl saw both of his friends and ran closer, under the belief that there was no reason to avoid the heiress now that Diamond was here.

"Hey Dia," he said when he got close.

"Hey," Diamond muttered as a reply.

"Now that both of you are here, I shall return home to make breakfast. I do hope that you will like it," Platinum said happily. She smiled at them for a short while before leading both boys back to her mansion.

Diamond followed her with a blank look. Pearl observed his expression as he followed. He's been with Diamond enough to know whether his blank look was because he was sleepy, or he was lost in thought. This time, it wasn't either…

At the massive Berlitz Mansion dinner table, Diamond and Pearl sat and waited for Platinum to come. While Pearl tried to find out why his best friend was acting the way he was, Diamond had come up with a plan of his own that he intended to carry out to full completion.

Before long, Platinum came back, with the servants of the Berlitz Mansion carrying the plates. They distributed the plates amongst the three Sinnoh Dex Holders and Platinum watched eagerly as her two friends began eating.

"So, how are they?" she asked nervously.

'_This has got to be the worst piece of sh-_' "It's good, Miss Lady," Pearl said as he forcefully swallowed the ex-fresh ingredients in his mouth. It was a good thing the heiress made many dishes carrying small portions of varying food. That way, even if something sucked, there were other options. "It's not as good as Dia's cooking, though."

"Of course," Platinum said with a smile. "He is far more experienced than I. Diamond, how is your food?"

Diamond didn't answer and he silently ate. Platinum watched his expression carefully, trying to gauge his reaction. Pearl looked at him worriedly as he never saw him behave like this before.

"Dia?"

Diamond suddenly sighed. "There's something important I have to tell you about our trip to Johto," he said at last.

"Oh? What is it?" Platinum asked.

"I'm not going with you," Diamond answered.

"What? Why?" Pearl asked. '_What the hell? The whole point of going to Johto was to get you closer to Miss Lady, Dia!_'

"Something very important came up," Diamond lied. "And I can't go with you."

"Is it urgent?" Platinum asked, unable to stifle her disappointment. "Because I would highly appreciate your company…"

"Sorry, Lady."

Diamond rose to his feet and began walking away. Platinum tried to follow, but Pearl stopped her.

"Let me go talk to him, Miss Lady."

Pearl quickly followed Diamond, but it seemed that he had already left the mansion. So the hasty Dex Holder chased after him and eventually found him standing next to the Pokémon Center with another blank look.

"Why'd you follow me, Pearl?"

"Dia… no, Diamond," Pearl started. "What's with you? I know there's nothing important or urgent happening recently. So why are you backing out of this trip?"

"I think you know better than me," Diamond said with a long sigh. "The Lady… loves _you_, Pearl."

"… Oh, shit… she told you…"

"It's over for me. I'll always love her, but she'll always love you. And I love her enough to want what'll make her happy, not what'll make me happy. She's all yours Pearl. I'm giving up."

"Hey, I told you that I was helping you get her," Pearl said. "I don't even like her. I just want her to be a close friend, nothing more, nothing less."

"It doesn't matter what you want," Diamond said bitterly. "Or what I want. The only thing that matters is what she wants. And that's you. I'm sure deep inside, she's happy that I'm not going with her on this trip."

"Miss Lady is not coldhearted," Pearl said, his voice rising in frustration. He glanced backwards to check that Platinum was not following. "She may not love you, but she likes you. She wants you to go with her to Johto. And listen. When we get to Johto, I'll be leaving you two alone. Whatever feelings she may have for me will be replaced if you save her from danger. And trust me. Miss Lady will be getting into trouble more frequently than you will be eating."

"That's why I'm not going with you. She'll just get confused if I'm the one saving her. And I'm telling you, she'll want _you_ to save her from danger. You have to take care of her from this point on, Pearl. Keep her safe. Because I don't think I can do that anymore."

"Dia… no, Diamond. Listen to me," Pearl growled out. "You dragged me into a mess that I didn't like to start with. And I tried all I could to steer Miss Lady to you. All this shit backfired so far, and it's pissing me off. If you don't come with us to Johto, then I am going to end this early. I'll go straight to Miss Lady and say to her face and I don't like her. And you and I both know what'll happen next. She'll want your company for support, but you won't be giving her that support because you don't want her _confused_. You know what that means? She would've lost her only friends all at once. Good luck in trying to get her happy after that point."

"… You wouldn't harm her like that, would you?"

"Try me. I don't want to be in this mess any longer. You are going to come with us to Johto so we can fix this problem, or I go and break her heart."

Diamond and Pearl glared at each other for a few seconds until Pearl started to walk away, towards the Berlitz Mansion.

"Wait! What are you doing?!" Diamond demanded as he ran up to his friend.

"I'll be waiting with Miss Lady," he answered. "If you don't show up within 10 minutes to tell her what you've decided to do, I'm breaking her. You'll be miserable, she'll be miserable, and I'll be miserable. We'll all go down in this spiral of misery together. But the thing is, you and I will be able to get out of that spiral. But Miss Lady… would probably stay in her mansion for the rest of her life, afraid to make any friends because of what happened with us. I mean her only friends suddenly decided to abandon her and break her heart. Where's the guarantee that it won't happen again?"

"You… can't break her, Pearl!"

"Then what are you waiting for?"

"… Fine! I'll go with you to Johto."

In her mansion, Platinum paced around the dinner table, waiting for her two friends to return. She didn't know why Diamond suddenly couldn't go to Johto, but whatever the reason, she sincerely hoped that he could go with her. But before she could worry too much, Diamond and Pearl returned. Their expressions were… odd, and she didn't recognize them. But she didn't care. She was just glad that her friends had returned.

"Diamond," she started nicely. "I would highly appreciate it if you would come to Johto with us. The trip will not be fun without you. So please. Can you come with us?"

Diamond looked away from her face. He couldn't bear to look at her now with the recent developments. "… Okay, I'll go with you."

Platinum beamed in joy and clasped his hands. "Oh, thank you, Diamond. I promise this trip will be very enjoyable."

Diamond turned to stare at Pearl. "… Yeah. I know it will be…"

Before too long, the Sinnoh Dex Holders headed to Canalave City via carriage. For the ride, Diamond sat on one seat and Pearl sat on the opposite side. Platinum… sat with Pearl, as predicted by both boys. She seemed quite happy to sit beside her crush, but her happiness soon faded. She could see the rigid expressions of her friends. They were both staring through the window with a blank look and refused to say anything.

"Diamond, Pearl, is something wrong?" Platinum asked. "You two do not appear to be in a good mood. Did something happen?"

"No," both boys answered in monotone unison.

"I think you two are lying to me," Platinum said as she looked back and forth between her two friends. "I thought you two promised never to lie to me again."

"We're not lying," the two boys said in perfect monotone and unison again.

"Miss Lady, what's the first thing we're going to do when we get to Johto?" Pearl asked to change the topic.

Platinum slightly narrowed her eyes but soon decided to let it drop. "We will be arriving in Olivine City. There is a famous eatery there, and we will be trying it. Afterwards, we shall head towards Ecruteak City."

And just like that, all three Sinnoh Dex Holders stopped talking. Platinum seemed really bothered by the awkward silence. She tried to break it a few times by asking Diamond and Pearl about why their mood seemed so bad, but she only got seemingly computer-automated monotone replies. Offended by the fact that her friends were lying to her, Platinum soon gave up and stared through the window.

The three Dex Holders eventually arrived at Canalave City and boarded the ship to Johto in complete silence. On the ship, each Dex Holder entered their own rooms in silent contemplation. Diamond thought about how he was going to stop Pearl from breaking Platinum. Pearl thought about how he was going to steer the heiress towards Diamond without breaking her. Platinum thought about what could possibly be going through her friends' minds and why they were in such a bad mood. She contemplated whether it was her fault, but dismissed the idea. She didn't do anything, did she?

But just to be on the safe side, she went to talk to Diamond. From her experience, Platinum found that the relaxed Dex Holder had the most calming effect on her. And whenever they were alone, Diamond tended to say stuff that he normally wouldn't.

Platinum soon stood in front of Diamond's room and knocked on the door. There was a small moment of silence before the boy opened the door. He didn't say anything but let her in. Inside the cabin, Diamond sat on the bed and Platinum sat beside him.

"Diamond, why are you so depressed?" the heiress asked. "You seemed happy earlier today when you arrived at Sandgem." She tried to look into his eyes but he wasn't looking at her. "… Did I do something to offend you?"

The boy sighed. '_Crap._' "No, this has nothing to do with you, Lady," he lied. "It's just that… the urgent matter earlier today was a great offer for a comedy trip. Pearl and I have been looking forward for that offer for a long time, but…" He looked into Platinum's beautiful eyes and hoped that she would believe such a lie.

The heiress looked into his eyes for a second before she smiled. "Thank you for telling me the truth, Diamond. And I am really sorry about the lost opportunity. When we return, I promise I will do all I can to help you regain that opportunity."

'_Oh, you naïve, oblivious, heart destroying girl…_' "I'm sorry for lying, Lady. I promise I won't do it again."

Platinum nodded. "I trust you."

The heiress smiled at him for a second before she left. Diamond watched her leave and looked down in terrible shame. He couldn't believe he had to lie to her… and right in her face for that matter. If she eventually found out that he had lied all this time…

There was a bigger emergency though. His lie had to survive for the time being. And Pearl didn't know what happened. Diamond quickly sent his friend a message with his Pokégear, telling him of what he said to Platinum. That way, if the heiress went to talk to the hasty Dex Holder, the lie wouldn't be busted.

Diamond felt terrible. Absolutely terrible. He wanted to leave Pearl and Platinum alone so the heiress would be happy. But he couldn't leave abruptly. Platinum would undoubtedly look for him. He had to leave naturally. Like… meeting someone, for example. But if he left, Pearl would just break Platinum's heart. And Diamond could not allow that to happen. He had to use Pearl's threat against him, so to speak. Surely the hasty Dex Holder wouldn't break Platinum's heart if she was in dire need of his company…

'_Lady, I'm so sorry. I'll always love you, but you'll love Pearl. You're my first love, but he's your first. And that's permanent. The longer I stay with you, more painful it'll be for me. So I can't stay with you. But I can't leave you. I have a solution. And this will be a lot more painful to me than it will be to you. But in the long run, you'll be happy. Lady, I can't leave you, but I promise that __**you**__ will leave __**me**__. … You will __**want**__ to leave me._'

* * *

**Remember. This storyline WILL result in Diamond getting together with Platinum. I just don't know how that'll work right now. But it will happen!**


	13. Not Quite as Planned

**SL is back to the Gold & Crystal segment for… Kanto storyline stalling reasons.**

**Keep in mind that all segments of SL are regional. The Gold & Crystal segment will only contain the point-of-views for the Johto Dex Holders. The Ruby & Sapphire segment will only have the point-of-views for the Hoenn Dex Holders (even Emerald, wherever he is). Which means, in the Black & White segment, there will not be any thoughts or secret actions from anyone other than Black and White.**

**Segment: Gold & Crystal.**

* * *

Chapter 13: Not Quite as Planned

April 21, Violet City, Johto, 5:30 pm…

Gold stared at the girl sitting across the table from him. She was still yakking about something. He stopped paying any attention around 20 minutes ago, but it seemed that the girl didn't realize it. What was her name again? Ah, it didn't matter. She probably told him at one point, but it must've been as boring as this conversation. But to be fair, he didn't ask for this date. He was kind of… forced. The fan club chased him for weeks and he had to make a deal with them so they'd back off. The deal was that once every week, he had to go on a date with one member of that club until he either found someone he liked in that club, or got a real girlfriend.

'_Stupid fan club_,' Gold thought to himself. '_Why is it, or rather __**how**__ is it that the club has absolutely no interesting girls? This has got to be the dullest… lunch and/or dinner I have ever had…_'

The Dex Holder looked down at his plate. There was still over half of the 'food' on it. He tried his best to finish, but… it sucked horribly. He took the suggestion of his date and he regretted that decision severely. For someone who supposedly lived in Violet City, the girl had no idea what was good and what wasn't in the city. Crystal probably knew, and Gold regretted not asking her what her suggestions were.

'_I wonder how Crys is doing right now? I probably should've asked her to talk about what happened. Maybe I should've stayed-_' His thoughts were interrupted by an excited squeal from his 'date'. Hoping that the conversation and thereby the 'date' was over, Gold looked over at her. But much to his dismay, the girl resumed talking. Why did she squeal then? It probably made sense in context, _if_ he was paying attention. '_This is so f*cking boring. I need to find an actual girlfriend fast. Otherwise I'll have to test every single girl of that fan club or risk being stalked and chased every day. But first, I need to end this damn date quickly…_'

Gold snapped out of his thoughts when his Pokédex started to resonate. He shut off the resonation system but stared at the Pokédex for a while, wondering why it did that. It had been so long since all the Johto Dex Holders gathered in one place that he completely forgot about the resonation function.

Until recently, he saw Silver daily so that he could watch his freaking robot show in his house. Gold had only seen the show once and… it sucked. He still believed that the show would've been a hell of a lot better if the characters were based on _his_ team and not Red's. But apparently, Silver liked the damn show. He only stopped coming recently because the latest season ended or something. And although Gold saw Crystal on a daily basis, she seemed to have timed her visits so that Silver would be long gone when she arrived in New Bark Town. As a result, the Johto Dex Holders' Pokédex never resonated in years.

"Here we are, Silver!" came Crystal's voice from the entrance of the restaurant.

'_Silver? What's he doing here?_' Gold thought as he glanced over. '_And that sounded like Crys…_'

From the entrance, Crystal quickly scanned the seats for Gold while pretending to look for a good empty spot. Right beside her, Silver set aside his concerns and steeled himself for what needed to be done. If he blew the cover, then Crystal was going to be pissed. And he did not want to get his ass kicked by a girl with so much kicking skills and power that would make the world's strongest soccer player cry out in shame. He sincerely hoped that Gold was not in the restaurant so he wouldn't have to deal with the impending awkward moments. But his Pokédex did resonate, which meant that Gold was here somewhere…

"Hey Silver! Super Serious Gal! Over here!" came the goggled boy's voice from afar.

Silver sighed and Crystal took a nervous breath. They were about to head towards Gold when he suddenly decided to walk over.

"Hi, Gold," Crystal said, feigning surprise. "I didn't know you came here for your date."

"I'm _really_ glad you two are here," Gold said the moment he stopped in front of his friends. "Help me _end_ this date!" he whispered to them after taking a glance at his 'date'.

"You don't like her?" Crystal asked after looking at her 'rival'. "She seems nice."

"She's as boring as Silver here."

Silver's eyes twitched but he didn't react outwardly. If anything, he was glad that he didn't have to pretend to be going out with Crystal. Maybe his luck was finally starting to turn in his crappy, crappy day. But he couldn't be sure. Crystal may still want him to pretend to be going out with her to check Gold.

"That's not a very nice thing to say," Crystal commented. "That implies your date is _really_ boring and has no sense of humor. No offense, Silver."

Silver clenched his teeth but didn't say anything. Maybe he could somehow use this to 'break up' with Crystal? It would make _some_ sense, though admittedly not that much…

"Anyways, what brings you two here?" Gold asked. "Are you two dating or something?" he asked with a wholehearted laugh.

"Of course not," Crystal said quickly. "He just wanted to buy me dinner for what happened earlier today." '_No signs of jealousy… So he doesn't like me yet, but at least he doesn't like that other girl. Okay…_'

"Come and join my table," Gold offered. "Make this night interesting for crying out loud."

The three Johto Dex Holders were about to head towards the table when there was a faint vibration sound coming from Silver's pocket. It was his Pokégear vibrating to signal and oncoming message. The message was from Blue, apparently.

"_Silver, I… need to talk to you. It's really important. Can you come and meet me at your 7__th__ secret base?"_

"Sorry, Gold, Crys," he said as he replied to the message on his Pokégear. "I need to get going. Sis needs me. She said it's an emergency." '_What a relief. Now I can leave these two soon-to-be lovebirds and get the hell out of here!_'

"Well… okay then," Crystal said. She gave him a short hug. "Thanks for cheering me up today. I really appreciate it."

'_I don't recall doing such a thing,_' Silver thought to himself. '_All I remember is I came to __**try**__ cheering her up and she dragged me into a mess that thankfully resolved itself._' He gave her a horribly-awkward hug in return and walked out of the restaurant as fast as his feet could take him. '_Anyways, now that that's out of the way…_'

Once Silver left, Crystal followed Gold to his table and sat down next to him. The moment she did, Gold's 'date' looked rather… troubled and confused.

"I thought this was just going to be a date between you and me," she said to Gold. "Who's this?"

"She's Super Serious Gal," Gold said, and Crystal promptly stomped on his foot. "Ow… I mean, she's Crystal, or Crys for short. She's a close friend of mine, and she was recently involved in some hostage thing so I'm just going to treat her dinner."

Crystal stifled the urge to roll her eyes. Gold and his blatant lies… Instead, she looked down at the food on the table.

"… You ordered _that_?" she asked Gold. "… Why?"

"Her idea," the goggled boy said with a slight nudge towards his 'date'.

"Out of all the good food, you ordered the _one_ course that's not any good," Crystal said with a smile.

"Got a better suggestion?"

"Of course. If I can see the menu."

"Hey, waiter dude!" Gold yelled abruptly. "Need the menu here!"

Soon, the waiter arrived and Crystal selected her two preferred courses. One for Gold, and the other for herself.

"Excellent choices, miss," the waiter said as he received the menus afterwards.

"Huh. He didn't say that when I made my choice," Gold said once the waiter left.

"What'd he say?"

"He just said "if you so choose" and walked away."

Crystal smiled. "Of course. He knows that the course you chose isn't good. Only a small handful of regulars like it, which is why it's still on the menu. No one else likes it."

There was a brief silence as the two Johto Dex Holders waited for the food to arrive. Taking this chance, Gold's 'date' tried to say something. Gold saw her, however, and quickly turned his focus to Crystal.

"So Crys, what happened at the orphanage?" he asked. "I heard the guy who held you hostage was an attempted murderer or something."

Crystal nodded. "Yes. He tried to hold me hostage with a knife to he could work out a deal with the police," she said as she touched the band-aid over the cut on her cheek. "Since he was… _touching_ me, I think he planned to do something else to me afterwards." She shuddered at the thought and Gold put a hand over hers underneath the table to calm her down. It was really effective and Crystal could feel her cheeks warming significantly. She quickly cleared her throat in an attempt to fight off the blush. "A – Anyways, the four orphans I showed you saved me."

"How did they save you?"

While Crystal explained what happened at the orphanage, the ordered food arrived. The two Johto Dex Holders ate and talked, leaving Gold's 'date' completely alone. She knew she would have to make a bold move to get the date back on track and get the unwanted guest to beat it.

She timed her actions carefully. The moment Gold finished eating and took a drink from his cup of water, she reached over to wipe his mouth with a paper towel and then leaned over and kissed him on the mouth.

Gold jumped in surprise and Crystal froze. Both Dex Holders stared at the 'date', caught off guard by the sudden action. While Gold started to grin, Crystal clenched her teeth. The 'date' was giving her a smug look of victory, and Gold grinning wasn't exactly helping. Did he… _like_ that kiss? He better not have…

It seemed that the war has just begun…

…

Silver's 7th secret base, undisclosed location, 6:30 pm…

…

Silver let go of his Honchkrow and landed on the ground directly in front of his secret base. He could immediately tell that someone else was inside, so he quickly entered. He didn't want to keep Blue waiting, especially if her business was urgent.

Inside the rundown shack of a secret base, he spotted Blue pacing around with her arms crossed behind her back. Upon recognizing his presence, she stopped and turned to face him.

"I'm glad you came," she said after a sigh. "I really need some company right now."

"Is something wrong, sis?" Silver asked.

Blue didn't answer that question. She seemed quite distressed, much to his concern. "Silver… you once told me a few years ago that you felt as if the darkness dragged you back whenever you want to be in the light. Do you remember?"

"Yes, what about it?" Silver asked as he carefully eyed the Kanto Dex Holder. Something was clearly wrong. But come to think of it, she never really talked to him about her problems. He didn't think she talked to anyone about them, really.

"Do you… still feel that way?"

"No. I haven't for quite a long time. But sis, tell me what's wrong."

Blue let out a long sigh. "… Do you know how it feels when… nothing ever works out the way you wanted?"

"Yeah, I know. Today's been like that," Silver said. "Everything that could go wrong did go wrong."

"Everyone has an off-day, Silver. I'm talking about…" Blue trailed off as she looked into his eyes. "… Never mind. I shouldn't bother you like this… especially since you're in the light now."

"Sis, what's wrong? Why are you talking like this?"

"I'm just having one of those off-days, that's all…"

It was a blatant lie, and Silver knew it. But he also knew that Blue wasn't going to explain what exactly was bothering her. All he could do was let her know that he would gladly help out in any way he could.

"If you say so," he said. "Sis, if you ever need anything, let me know and I'll do all I can to help out."

"I know you will," Blue said with a faint smile. "You're the only person I can really depend on."

"And that will never change. You can always depend on me," Silver assured her, choosing to ignore the fact that she claimed him to be the only one who she could depend on. Once again, Blue was probably not going to explain what she meant. "Even today. How would you like to eat dinner with me? It'll be my treat."

Blue gave him a smile that he knew was genuine. "I'd like that, Silver. I'd like that a lot. Thanks."

With that, Blue headed out of the secret base. Silver watched her for a few seconds, wondering what could be bothering her so much. However, as always, he decided that if she didn't want to tell him, then he had no business knowing. He'd just treat her well and hope that she would be able to figure out a solution on her own, as always. He'd help her if she needed him.

But even as he followed her towards the nearest restaurant in the city, he had absolutely no way of knowing how close Blue was to a complete breakdown that would change her permanently…

* * *

**A short chapter. But I needed something to get the ball rolling for all of S-EARL. Hopefully this nudge was enough. If not, the kick in the form of the next update should suffice…**

**(Advertisement) For the missing hostage event from SL #009, check out SR #021.**

**I experienced this thing called 'remorse' for what happened to Crystal in SA #028 (advertisement, so to speak). As such, I didn't have her half-assed plan backfire in SL.**


	14. Tipping Point

**Vote results: 1 for Black & White, 1 for Green & Blue, and… 5 no votes. I assume the vast majority of the faithful reviewers forgot that the votes for the even numbered chapters take place on the odd numbered ones. Oh well, it's been a while. However, since I have no opinion at all this time, I shall do a coin toss. Heads for Black & White, Tails for Green & Blue. And… (this coin toss did actually occur, by the way, though obviously not at the time of writing)… Tails. Therefore, SL is back to Green & Blue. And its by-product, Red & Yellow.**

**By the way, back in SL #012, there were 15 faithful reviewers. Now there are 7. 8 have been revoked in the past two updates despite my numerous warnings/alerts in the profile news. Possible reason: no one bothered to check the news. Possible solution: the news, and thereby all the warnings/alerts, are now moved to the actual chapters themselves, thus creating an unnecessarily large block of bolded text before the chapter actually starts, but guarantees view and auto-archives. Problem: the alert stating that a faithful reviewer is at risk of being revoked will only occur AFTER that reviewer has been revoked. Addendum: this updated news system has been in effect since the creation of SY. Yes, there's an SY now. Special Years. That 'addendum' was really just an advertisement.**

**Segment: Green & Blue.**

* * *

Chapter 14: Tipping Point

April 21, Viridian City, 2:30 pm…

The door to the Viridian Gym opened and a petite girl entered, carefully looking around the dark. She reached around the walls next to the door and upon finding the light switch, flipped it on. But the light source seemed to be weak, as the Gym's interior was still quite dark. With a slight sigh, the girl proceeded to venture deeper into the Gym.

"Green? Are you in here?" the girl called out.

The girl, being Yellow, stopped after taking exactly 7 steps from the entrance. She mentally counted to three and spun around, expecting Green's hologram to pop out from behind. When the hologram didn't flicker on, Yellow immediately swiveled around again. 7 weeks ago, when she made her weekly visit, the hologram had scared the hell out of her by popping out the moment she thought the system was off. She wasn't going to get fooled this time.

With no hologram yet, Yellow took another cautious step and spun around. This third check would have spared her a near heart attack 6 weeks ago. She glanced left and right before spinning around again. This fourth check would've helped her 5 weeks ago. Every week, the hologram popped out in different places, making it impossible for Yellow to prepare.

After making four more checks for her previous experiences and an additional three just in case, Yellow sighed in relief and proceeded to venture deeper into the Gym. No hologram meant that Green was _finally_ at the Gym!

… But… the moment she took a step forward, the hologram popped out right in front of her in a blink of an eye. Yellow bumped into the hologram and with a surprised shriek, fell backwards in shock.

"Are you a challenger?" Green's voice echoed from the hologram.

"… Oh, not again…" Yellow groaned out with her hands placed over her heart. "But how did I touch it? And the sound came from this thing…"

"I'll take that as a yes," the hologram said.

"Wait, what? No!"

From behind the hologram, Green's Arcanine and Alakazam appeared, ready to battle. Yellow quickly put her hands in the air to show that she meant no harm. An unnecessary action, as Green's Pokémon easily recognized her and backed off on their own. They were used to her weekly visits.

Relieved that she wasn't going to get blasted by Alakazam's Focus Blast, Yellow took a glance around the dark Gym and slowly turned around. The moment she faced the entrance of the Gym, the door opened. Yellow jumped in surprise when a dark figure appeared right in front of her, wearing a long dark trench coat, along with a hat and sunglasses. She screamed in terror when the figure reached out towards her.

"Yellow, calm down," the figure said quickly, using his hands to mean that he meant no harm.

Yellow stopped screaming upon hearing his voice. "What the…" She examined the figure carefully, and soon realized who she was looking at. "… Green? Is that you?"

"Quiet," the Viridian Gym Leader warned. He peeked out through the open door to make sure no one else was in the vicinity before quickly shutting it. After locking the door, he took off his hat and sunglasses.

Yellow took a quick sigh of relief. "… Green! Keep a defibrillator somewhere in your Gym at all times! You have no idea how many times I almost died of a heart attack in here!"

"Come again?"

"Your… _hardlight_ hologram!" Yellow said, almost yelling. "It keeps appearing at different times in different places! And why was it _hard_? I bumped into it! And how come you're never here? And why are you dressed like this? You really scared me!"

"One question at a time," Green said as he signaled her to calm down. "Okay. I'm dressed like this to avoid a certain pack of insane girls. Blue helped me with that issue last time, but now that's she's elsewhere, I'm on my own. I wasn't in the Gym for the past year because I was training alone. And I have no idea what you mean by hardlight hologram."

"See for yourself."

"Alright then."

Green clapped in the air once. And in a blink of an eye, his hologram appeared right in front of Yellow, surprising the hell out of her again. Green reached forward and could soon feel the hologram pushing back against his palm.

"See?"

"Interesting." Green clapped twice and the hologram faded. Once the hologram disappeared, a Porygon2 appeared from the darkness of the Gym. "So this is what you've been doing in your spare time…"

"You left your Porygon2 here?" Yellow asked. "I thought you always had it in your party."

"Usually, but I left it here for the last few months so I could train one of the Pokémon I normally leave at the Gym." Green gave the Virtual Pokémon a pat on the head before returning it to its Pokéball. "I guess it was bored. I'll keep it in my team from now on. There's no telling what it'll do next. So Yellow, what are you doing here? Are you here to challenge me?"

"No, no," Yellow said quickly. "I tried against your hologram a few years ago and… got destroyed. And considering how you've been constantly training while I haven't at all, I won't stand a chance. I actually came here to see you. It's been a long while and I was just wondering if you were back." She cleared her throat and after straightening her composure, gave him a bright smile. "It's so nice to see you again!"

Green nodded. "Blue and Crystal said the same thing today. I guess it really has been a long while since I was home."

"Yes. It's been over a year, hasn't it? I'm sure all of your friends are really happy to see you again." Yellow smiled as she looked at Green's… disguise. "I guess your fans were _too_ happy to see you. Maybe if you stayed around a bit more, they won't chase you this much. Right now, they're chasing you because they won't get another opportunity in a while. But if you were around constantly, they wouldn't feel rushed."

"Perhaps I could test that theory," Green said. "Crystal suggested on a routine Dex Holder gathering. So I'll be staying home for a while for those gatherings and we'll see if those crazy fans let up on their fanatic chases."

"Oh? A gathering?" Yellow asked. "That'd be very nice. It'd be great to meet everyone again. And I mean _everyone_. We haven't seen the Hoenn Dex Holders since the Battle Frontier incident, right?"

"If the news spreads, they'll come as well," Green said. "I'm sure Crystal will contact Professor Birch and get it sorted out." He led Yellow towards his office in the corner of the Gym. It was the only place in the Gym with a table. It was also the only place with something to sit on. "So Yellow, what are you doing nowadays?"

"Same as always," the girl answered. "… Absolutely nothing. I once tried to help Crystal at the orphanage but that didn't go anywhere. I don't have the… authority to tell any orphan what to do or not do."

"If you continue helping out, I'm sure they'll listen to you eventually. You could be a good substitute for Crystal whenever she's sick or busy with research."

"You think so?"

Green shrugged. "It's either you or Gold. And I highly doubt that he'll be of any help."

"Okay then. I'll call Crystal later today and talk to her about it. But I won't be doing that all day every day. So… in the days when I'm not helping there, do you think I could help you with your Gym?"

"You want to help me in this Gym? How?"

Yellow thought for a few seconds. "Well, you're not here half the time. … Okay, _most_ of the time. Your Pokémon have to take care of themselves. The food stash you left can't last forever and there could be a few other problems that can occur from neglect. I can take care of your Pokémon for you and even handle some of the challengers for you. I won't be battling them, but I can assure them that the Gym is open and that they don't get a heart attack from your hardlight hologram."

"Sure, why not. If you want to help, then sure."

"Thank you! Now I won't be bored so much!"

Green smiled. "I know that feeling. Well, come on. Let's catch up. Even though you said you haven't been doing anything, you must've still kept in contact with the other Dex Holders. And something is bound to happen to someone."

…

Meanwhile, Pallet Town…

…

Blue stared at Red's warm red eyes, desperately thinking of something to say. She needed to say something, but her mind was in a state of panic and she couldn't think properly.

'_No, no, no… What the hell. How could this happen? I tried so hard to steer him to Yellow… What should I do?_' She took a nervous gulp as she forcefully looked away from Red's eyes. '_But wow, what a kiss… Wait, what? No! No! … And he's so good looking too… No! Stop! Bad! … And this __**was**__ my first kiss… Damn it!_'

Blue risked another look at Red. Looking as handsome as before, he was eagerly waiting for her response. Realizing that she was utterly screwed, she decided to stall.

"W – Wow, Red," she stammered out. "I – I don't know what to say…"

"A simple answer would suffice," the Kanto champion said with a warm smile. "Or just say whatever comes to mind. Whether you like me or not, we'll always be friends."

'_And he's so kind…_' Blue took another nervous gulp. "I never would've thought that… you'd like someone like me. I think you deserve someone better."

"I've known you for many years, Blue," Red said. "Sure, when we first met, you ripped me off, stole my stuff, and got me involved in a mess caused by your scheme to make a whole ton of money, but as time passed, you changed. I know you. You're really kind and caring and very, very smart. I don't think there's anyone better than you."

Blue blushed in embarrassment at the compliments. "Um… thanks. But I still think you can do a lot better. I know myself pretty good, and I know that I'm not good enough for you. I know you'll get a really nice girlfriend one day."

Red crossed his arms. "I like to think that I'm looking at the one right now. But… what, do you think I should try with someone else first?"

"I don't mean to offend you, Red," Blue said hastily. "But… this… is a big deal for me. I really don't know what to say. I always thought you liked… Misty or… Yellow."

"Misty… eh. I have nothing to say about her. Yellow… I like to think of her as a close friend. I haven't thought about anything beyond that."

Blue mentally sighed in relief, as she believed that she found some footing in this… predicament. "Why not? She's really nice, don't you think? She's smart, very cute, and extremely kindhearted. I think she'd be perfect for you."

Red shrugged. "Maybe. But I'm not sure if she'll like me."

'_Oh, you blind, handsome fool…_' "I'm sure she will. After all, you did save her life many years ago."

"I'll have to think about that. But for now, I still like you."

'_Ah, hell…_' "Um… I'm… flattered, Red. I really am. I'm afraid that I might disappoint you… Um… do you mind if I… think this over? I need to collect my thoughts. I'll try to have an answer for you by tomorrow."

"Well… okay, then," Red said. "I guess I'll get my answer from you in that Dex Holder meeting."

Blue nodded and rose to her feet. She sent out her Wigglytuff. Before she hopped on, she looked at Red one more time. "Thanks for the compliments, Red. I… really appreciate it."

"Don't mention it."

Blue waved at her friend and hopped onto her Pokémon. Afterwards, she got her Wigglytuff to head towards her home in One Island.

During the slow flight, Blue let out a long sigh as she thought about all that had happened so far. Green was back, which was a good thing. Crystal was planning on a Dex Holder gathering, which was also good. But Green didn't like anyone, which was very bad, since that meant he didn't like her. He also had a pack of crazy fan girls, which was bad. And Red liked her. And that was terrible. … Wasn't it? Was it bad? Was she just overreacting? Blue crossed her arms and calmed herself down. She carefully thought about the situation.

'_Okay… Is this really that bad? Sure, I like Green and Yellow likes Red. I want Yellow to get together with Red. But while Green doesn't like me, Red does. And he's not a bad guy. He's really nice and handsome and… … Would it be so bad if I accept him? … That'd be betraying Yellow's trust. I can't do that. But how would I get Red to like Yellow instead of me?_'

Blue snapped out of her thoughts half an hour later when her Pokégear started to ring. She took it out of her bag and checked the number. The call was from home. So her parents were calling. Crap. That was never good. But she had no choice. Blue forced herself to think happy thoughts and answered the call.

"Hello?"

"Young lady, where are you?" came her father's voice. He sounded quite angry.

"I'm on my way home from Pallet Town," Blue answered nicely, even though her fists were clenched.

"Who gave you permission to go all the way over to Pallet Town that early in the morning? Do you have any idea how early you left this house? What if you were kidnapped again?"

"Look, dad, I told you I was going over to Goldenrod to buy something," Blue argued. "You knew about it! And I wanted to see my friends again. Is that so bad? And besides, I can take care of myself. I have been for over 16 years!"

"Don't you talk to me like that! Get back home now! You're grounded, young lady!"

Blue rolled her eyes and sighed. "I'm not a kid, dad. I haven't been ever since the kidnapping. Which you weren't there for, might I add. You _can't_ ground me. And besides, I spent over half my life without you. What makes you think I should listen to you?"

Without waiting for an answer, she shut off her Pokégear and shut it off so that she wouldn't be bothered by the incoming continuous call attempts. She then angrily shoved it into her bag.

Sensing its trainer's anger, the Wigglytuff had stopped moving. Blue patted it on the head and wordlessly pointed back to Kanto mainland. The Wigglytuff slowly turned around and headed back. Since Blue didn't specify a destination, the Balloon Pokémon simply floated/drifted towards Kanto mainland.

"Avoid Pallet Town," Blue said abruptly. "Just… land in Fuchsia City."

The Wigglytuff did as told and adjusted its course. It arrived at the destination an hour later and 'parked' itself on top of a grassy hill. Blue hopped off and returned her Pokémon before she sat down on the grass. And for a long while, she simply stared into the distance, calming herself using the cool breeze that swept the hillside. She wanted to collect her thoughts and calm down. But she eventually found out that it was impossible to do it alone. Only more anger built up inside her by thinking all alone. She needed someone's company.

With another sigh, Blue took out her Pokégear and turned it on. There was a total of 30 missed calls from her pissed off parents. She didn't care. Instead, she pulled up her list of contacts. The first contact was Silver. But Blue didn't want to disturb him with her problems. There were things he should never know.

Next up was Green. But he was probably busy scaring the hell out of Bill. Or if he finished doing that, he was probably back in Professor Oak's lab, doing some research. Probably. And besides, she doubted that he would be of any help. She didn't want to bother him with this issue anyways.

Next up was Red, and Blue was technically avoiding him. Telling him that he was partly the cause of her depression would accomplish absolutely nothing good. Next was Yellow. But talking to her was risky. If Yellow found out that she was depressed partly because of what Red said, the current dilemma was going to become a hell of a lot bigger.

Next on the list was Crystal. But right now, Crystal would be busy taking care of the hell raiser orphans. And Blue didn't want to talk to her when she was busy. She didn't want to visit either. The last time she did, she ended up with thumbtacks in her feet and having that happening again wasn't going to cheer her up.

Below Crystal's name were the names of the non Dex Holders, including Professor Oak, Daisy, and a few other contacts, none of which would be of any use in the current situation. So only Silver and Crystal would be able to help her.

Blue let out a long sigh as she made her decision. She would send Silver a message. All she had to do was be careful. If she didn't tell him what exactly was bothering her, he'd be able to stay out of this mess. And besides, he was the only one who could cheer her up without trying to figure out everything. Crystal would persistently ask what was bothering her. Silver would probably ask once or twice before backing off. So he was perfect.

Blue took out a map of Kanto. She would need to pick a place to meet. Somewhere discreet, preferably. One of Silver's secret bases would do. She was currently in Fuchsia City, so… a couple of secret bases were nearby. _Technically_, she wasn't supposed to know about any of them. But she did explore around quite a bit (mainly to get out of her house) and discovered 10 of at least 18 secret bases. She'll tell him to meet her in his 7th secret base. Normally, she wouldn't know which base is which, but Silver had a little piece of code carved in the wood in the door of each of his base that marked which base was which. And Blue had decrypted it with relative ease. To her, Silver was quite easy to figure out. But to him, she wasn't anywhere as easy. Which meant, as long as she didn't tell him, he would never figure out what exactly she was going through.

* * *

**The current priority for SL is to give screen time to the Dex Holders who have yet to appear despite the 10+ chapters. There is one left, I do believe. Unless there's another Dex Holder that I give so damn little about that I completely forgot his/her existence entirely… Well, no matter.**

**By the way, mass update incoming. I said I wouldn't be updating all of S-EARL at once. But I'll be updating all of S-EARLY at once this time. ETA: 2~3 weeks.**


	15. Unova Tour

**Completely missed the ETA from last chapter, but the mass update of all of S-EARLY is here! … Archiving would be a nightmare. But that's beside the point. Enjoy!**

**Note: S-EARL's Age Relations (Edition III) is confirmed to be inaccurate. However, S-EARL will continue using it due to their progress. SY and onwards will use the 4-Generations-accurate Edition IV.**

**Something came up that I should probably clarify. I **_**really**_** hope everyone reads the blocks of bolded text above/below each chapter. Quite often, those blocks of text have important information. Such as new story creation (such as SY, as mentioned in that block last chapter, hence S-EARL is updated to S-EARLY), response to a minor review-question/comment (like this one), possible cancellation and its progress (see below), and others.**

**Cancellation progress/thought is at 0%. Which means, no, I'm not cancelling SL. This is NOT a cancellation alert or a premature warning. But if I was going to cancel this story, the news/alert will appear here. The fact that 10 faithful reviewers have been revoked in the past three chapters is annoying, but nothing that warrants a cancellation alert. Unless it keeps going. Then we have a problem. But no major problems yet.**

**Segment: Ruby & Sapphire.**

* * *

Chapter 15: Unova Tour

April 22, Nuvema Town, Unova, 12:00 pm…

Sapphire sat on a chair balanced precariously on its two hind legs while keeping her feet up on the table. She was very bored at the moment since nothing was really happening. Black went to find his friend, Ruby was sitting in a corner thinking of dastardly evil outfit plans for Black while White sat silently by the table, preparing herself for what she had to do.

Having nothing better to do, Sapphire looked over at White and examined her outfit. Ruby would have some comments about the clothing style. But Sapphire didn't, since she didn't give a damn. But she did have some inquiries regarding some pieces.

"So…" she started. White snapped out of her thoughts and looked over at her. "… Is that a skirt, or shorts?"

"Oh. It's… a mix between the two. I think it's cute, don't you?"

"I don't know," Sapphire answered truthfully. "I don't see how that word applies to non-living things."

"That's because you're an uncultured barbarian," came Ruby's remark from behind.

"Shut it!" Sapphire snapped back abruptly. "Anyways… What about that pink ribbon thing? What the hell is that thing?"

White blushed in embarrassment and looked away. "That's… um…"

"Sapphire," came Ruby's voice again. "It's not polite to talk about someone's undergarments when you've just met."

Sapphire turned to look at Ruby. "Someone's what? Did I hear that right?"

"Could we please talk about something else?" White suggested rather quickly.

Sapphire thought for a few seconds before turning to look at her junior. "So… you and Black, huh? How long have you known each other?"

"A couple of years now," White replied. "How long have you known Ruby?"

Sapphire glanced back at Ruby, who was jotting down ideas for a new outfit. "Eh… 10 years now? We met when we were like… 6, so yeah." She looked back at White with a teasing smile on her face. "So… do you like Black?"

White started to blush and timidly looked away. "Well… um… That's…"

The Hoenn girl let out a laugh. "Ha, so you _do_ like him! Does he like you back, or did he conveniently _forget_ about that?"

"I wonder where you could _possibly_ be going with this," came Ruby's sarcastic remark.

"Shut it!" Sapphire snapped again.

"C – Could we talk about something else?" White suggested again.

"Well, what _do_ you want to talk about?!"

"Um… d – do you really think this whole Gym challenge is going to help me?"

Sapphire shrugged. "Sure, I guess. Winning a series of battles against well known people like the Gym Leaders can give you a nice boost to confidence and self-esteem. Unless you get destroyed. Then it does the exact opposite."

Ruby let out a sigh. "You're not being helpful, Sapphire."

Sapphire looked at White's expression and noticed that she looked incredibly nervous. It appeared that she was trying to think of an alternative, as if she was even afraid to try the Gym challenges.

"Oops. I mean… um…" The Hoenn girl scratched her head as she thought of something to say. "… You'll do fine!"

Ruby rolled his eyes and walked over towards White. He sat beside her and gave her a pat to the back. "Don't worry about it. We'll help you in this challenge. And this senseless barbarian can even train you between Gym Battles."

"Yeah!" Sapphire said cheerfully. "… Wait, what? Ruby, you bastard!"

"… Could you two please _not_ argue once every 5 seconds?" White asked. "But thank you. I really appreciate your help." She looked over at Sapphire with an embarrassed look on her face. "Um… could you… not tell Black about…"

"Oh. Yeah, sure. No problem. I'll tell no one."

A few minutes of awkward silence later, Black returned with his friend.

"Miss President, Cheren's here and he agreed to have a battle with you," the boy yelled as he barged through the door.

Ruby and Sapphire stood up to meet the Unova trainer. Once the basic introductions have passed, the group headed out to Black's backyard where the practice Gym Battle would occur.

White nervously stood on her side of the battlefield, carefully eyeing her surroundings. Black's friend, named Cheren, stood on the opposite side. Sapphire sat down on the grass next to the battlefield, where she'll have a good view of the battle. Black was about to do the same when Ruby stopped him.

"Black, while White has her practice battle, I will make you unrecognizable, as agreed," Ruby said.

"What? I'm not going to watch Miss President?" Black asked.

"Huh? Black's not going to support me?" White asked at the same time.

"Relax, she'll be fine," Ruby said to Black. He then turned his attention to White. "Relax, you'll do fine!"

"She's not deaf, you idiot," Sapphire commented.

"Quiet, you."

Sapphire rolled her eyes as Ruby dragged Black back into the house. Thanks to him, White appeared even more nervous now. She probably felt alone now, without Black's support. But the battle commenced anyways.

The battle started with White sending out her green banana-like Pokémon and Cheren sending out his peacock-like Pokémon. Sapphire had no clue what those Pokémon were, but based on the color and appearance, she could tell that White had the type disadvantage. And it appeared that Cheren was determined to try his best in this battle.

White appeared to be panicking. Her Pokémon was taking many hits and looked on the verge of losing. Sapphire wanted to suggest something, but decided against it, as White needed to overcome the challenge herself. But in her time of need, the Unova Dex Holder pulled through with a well placed Leaf Storm that got boosted by Overgrow.

Cheren swapped his Pokémon to a big dog Pokémon. White swapped hers out for a small, floating green blob thing. The dog charged forward for a Take Down. The green blob thing stopped it with Psychic and threw it far away.

The battle continued for a few minutes. Sapphire soon lost interest. With so many Pokémon she never even heard of, using attacks that she never knew existed (what was the difference between Leaf Tornado and Leaf Storm?), the battle was understandably difficult to fully follow. But eventually, White's green banana-like Pokémon hit another strong Leaf Storm boosted by Overgrow to knock out Cheren's dog Pokémon, thus winning the battle.

Cheren returned his Pokémon and began to applaud. "Congratulations, White. You won!"

White blinked a few times. "I… I won? … I won!" She ran over to her Pokémon and embraced it. "We won, Amanda! We won!"

Sapphire clapped her hands a few times to congratulate her junior. "See? I told you you'd do fine! Feel better about yourself now?"

White looked over at her senior. "A little, yes. Thank you for the support."

"I'm sure Black would be glad to know that you won," Sapphire said. She then turned to look back at the house. "Speaking of which, I wonder what Ruby's doing to him…"

Within a minute, White, Sapphire, and Cheren sat by the dinner table, waiting for Ruby and Black to return from wherever they went.

"I'm not going out there like this! This is crazy!" came Black's voice from behind a door.

"Stop your whining! These clothes look perfect!" came Ruby's reply.

"What? I look stupid!"

"Nonsense! You look fabulous!"

"If people see me like this…"

"The whole point of this was so that people _won't_ recognize you. And I've done my job spectacularly! Now go out there and show it off!"

"N – No, I think I'd rather-"

"Out you go!"

The door burst open and Black fell out from the room. The boy hesitantly got back to his feet and faced the 'crowd' sitting by the dinner table. Sapphire burst into laughter. Cheren started to chuckle, and White giggled uncontrollably, trying and failing to contain her laughter.

Black was now wearing a blue jacket with short sleeves and high collar, loose fitting gray shorts and rather tight blue striped black pants/leggings/thing that didn't quite reach his socks. If he _was_ wearing socks, anyways. And his hair was all over the place, clearly sticking out of his hat/cap thing that appeared like an accountant's hat.

"And there you go! A brand new Black!" Ruby said as he stepped out of the room.

"He looks ridiculous!" Sapphire laughed out. "… No offense."

Ruby shook his head. "That _is_ an offense," he said to Sapphire. "I put a lot of effort into those clothes!"

"Oh, sure," Black muttered. "She calls me ridiculous and _you're_ the one who's insulted…" He looked over at White. "Miss President, what do you think?"

White forced herself to calm down and looked at her friend from head to toe. Sapphire and Ruby watched her expression, trying to gauge her reaction.

"I'm sorry Black, but you look… really different," White blurted out. She put her hands to her mouth to stop herself from laughing, but lost the fight and burst into a fit of laughter.

"How is your hair standing up like that?" Cheren asked.

Ruby pulled out a can from his bag. "By using something I borrowed from and forgot to return to a fellow Hoenn Dex Holder the last time we met! Hair gel!"

…

Meanwhile, Earl's Academy, Violet City, Johto…

…

"Damn it, where is it?!"

"Emerald, what happened to your hair?"

Emerald looked back and spotted Crystal looking over at him with an amused look on her face. The boy quickly turned away in embarrassment.

"I lost my spare can of hair gel!" he blurted out. "It's gone! And I need it!"

"I think you look cute right now," Crystal said.

Emerald groaned. "More the reason for me to find it!"

"Did someone take it by accident?" the Johto Dex Holder suggested.

"No, the last time I saw it…" Emerald trailed off, having thought of something. "Wait… that sissy Ruby wanted to borrow it a few weeks back for his sissy contest. He must've kept it! That bastard!"

"Emerald! Watch your language! I told you to not use any bad language in front of the orphans!"

"But… I _am_ an orphan! From this very orphanage!" Emerald argued as he turned to face his senior.

"Act like one then! You've been hanging around with Gold too much!" Crystal scolded with her hands at her hips.

"Not nearly as much as you!" Emerald argued back.

Crystal didn't immediately reply and Emerald mentally celebrated a victory. It's not every day where he beat her in an argument. And he cherished each moment. Crystal shook her head. She was officially giving up and accepting defeat. Such a precious, golden moment.

"… But speaking of which, there's something I need you and the… _hell raiser_ orphans to do," she said slowly. "Something that shames me a little, but must be done…"

…

Back in Nuvema Town, Unova…

…

"Emerald's not going to be happy about you using up his hair gel," Sapphire said.

Ruby shrugged. "What is he going to do? Find us all the way out here? Besides, he doesn't need it." He patted Black on the back. "Now then. What are we going to do next?"

"I think the first thing you should do is come up with pseudonyms," Cheren said as he looked at both Black and White. "You don't want to call each other by names that people might recognize."

"Good point," Ruby muttered. "Fake names… fake names… Okay, why not use names of existing people? Like Red and Blue?"

"You are not going to use Red's name!" Sapphire yelled. "That name is off limits! Why not Green and Blue?"

Ruby glanced at Black. "No, he doesn't look like a Green. He'll need to be cold and heartless for that."

"Gold and Crystal, then?" Sapphire suggested.

Ruby glanced at White. "No, she doesn't look nearly as serious to look like a Crystal."

Sapphire grinned. "I'm telling on you the next time we see them."

Ruby glared at her, who happily ignored him. "… Don't you dare."

The Hoenn girl let out a sigh. "… We are so damn uncreative, using names of people we know as pseudonyms."

Ruby snapped his fingers. "I got it! See, this is what separates me, the smart civilized person, from you, a complete barbarian. Black and White, you two will now be known as Nate and Rosa. What do you think?"

Black shrugged. White appeared to think for a few moments before nodding.

"I think that'll work," she replied. "Rosa… I'll take it."

"So can we start touring around Unova yet, or what?!" Sapphire yelled out abruptly. "Let's do it! Come on!"

Ruby and Black looked at White, as if they were asking for her permission. The girl glanced at the others for a few seconds before hesitantly nodding.

And thus, the new journey around Unova had finally begun. The four Dex Holders left Nuvema Town with their aerial transport Pokémon in order to make as much progress in the tour/journey as fast as possible.

By 2 pm, the four Dex Holders arrived in Accumula Town, where they had a brief lunch stop. Ruby and Sapphire took this time to get acquainted with their juniors' Pokémon while Black and White took their time to get used to their pseudonyms.

At 3 pm, they arrived in Striaton City, where White had her first official Gym Battle. It was going to be a Triple Battle, so Ruby and Sapphire had to fill in the empty slots. Black could not participate so that the three Gym Leaders couldn't recognize the strategy or Pokémon that Black used during his official challenge. Ruby and Sapphire took supportive roles in the battle so that White could do most of the work. She managed to win the battle in the end without Ruby and Sapphire doing much.

By 4 pm, the four Dex Holders stopped at Nacrene City. Since Lenora had officially retired from Gym Leader work, White didn't challenge the Gym in the city. Instead, the four Dex Holders visited the Nacrene Museum. Surprisingly, Sapphire liked the experience. It was really easy to forget that she is the daughter of a famous professor.

The group headed towards Pinwheel Forest, at Sapphire's suggestion. Ruby, White, and Black soon lost Sapphire in the forest, as the girl opted to explore the forest in the non-conventional method of swinging on tree vines. They only managed to catch up with her because she chose to stop moving and fired a 'signal flare' into the air using her Blaziken's Flamethrower… which almost started a forest fire. Oops.

After the 'tour' through Pinwheel Forest, the four Dex Holders approached the famous Sky Arrow Bridge… which they promptly skipped using their aerial transport Pokémon. So much for the super famous bridge…

Castelia City… finding the Gym itself was much harder than the actual Gym Battle, as White noticed. Burgh had changed the Gym's layout from bee-themed to spider-themed and kept his artwork littered around here and there in the final area. While White battled Burgh, Ruby and Sapphire examined the artwork. This proved… devastating for Burgh.

Sapphire stared at a particular piece of art. Some kind of painting with various colors jumbled up all over the place. It was as if someone just spilled a bunch of ink on a canvas. If this was an intentional piece of art, Sapphire hadn't a clue as to what it was supposed to be.

"What the hell is this?" she muttered out loud, loud enough for Burgh to hear. "Is this what you call art? Is that what those so-called artists draw all day long? This is the stupidest thing I've ever seen!"

Her comments were apparently harmful enough to knock Burgh down to the ground. White took advantage of his distraction and beat his Pokémon down. She then returned her Pokémon and after celebrating her victory with her friends, left the Gym, with Burgh still down on the ground. Sapphire didn't realize that he was 'napping' because of her comments.

Sapphire stretched her limbs as she left the spider's nest of a Gym. "So, Rosa. What do you suggest we do here? It's a big city. There's bound to be something good somewhere, right?"

White nodded. "There are, but… to be honest, I don't know the exact layouts of this city. It's way too big and there are too many people here." She took a glance left and right. "But there is a nice, calm place where we can go. It's called Café Sonata. It's really nice."

"Then lead the way," Ruby said from behind. "I could really use a nice classy place."

"Can we eat dinner there?" Black asked. "It's getting kind of late, and I'm getting hungry."

"Sure," White answered. "I've been there once, and they served food there."

With White in the lead, the four Dex Holders headed towards central Castelia so that they could find the right alleyway. It was getting quite dark (7:30 pm), especially in the alleyways due to the shadows cast by the tall buildings. And in every major city at night, in the alleyways, there were bound to be troubles.

White gasped in shock when three burly men popped out of the shadows in the tight alleyway and surrounded her. She froze when one of them approached her abruptly with a knife in hand.

"You there, give me your wallet!"

"The rest of you!" the other two men said to the other Dex Holders. "Stay back if you want to live!"

Sapphire didn't seem remotely fazed. "Hey, Rosa! Are we there yet? I'm getting hungry!"

White didn't say anything as she kept her hands up. The knife was quite close to her throat, which no doubt greatly limited her options.

Ruby tapped Sapphire on the shoulder and cleared his throat. "Perhaps this is a moment where you should save your junior."

"Huh? Oh right. Hold on." Sapphire stretched her arms. "Alright, Rosa. I'm coming."

"I said stay back!" one of the muggers yelled.

Sapphire yelled back even louder. "Didn't you hear me?! GET OUT OF THE WAY! I'm hungry!"

She charged forward and punched the two muggers in their faces with both of her fists. She then pushed both of them face first into the brick walls forming the alley before dashing over to White. She grabbed her by the shirt and forcefully yanked her backwards, effectively throwing the girl backwards into Ruby and Black, knocking them down to the ground. Afterwards, Sapphire sidestepped to dodge the incoming knife and punched the last remaining mugger in the nose.

Once all three muggers were knocked unconscious, Sapphire shoved the bodies into the nearest trash dump and approached White, who was sitting on the ground, with Black holding her hand. As Sapphire came closer, she could see that White was still technically sitting on Ruby.

"Hey, you okay?" she asked White.

White still looked quite shocked, but managed to nod. Black gently helped her rise to her feet, finally allowing Ruby to get back up. The Hoenn Dex Holder grunted in disgust and wiped away the dirt on his shirt and pants.

"Alright then. Let's keep going towards that café thing," Sapphire said.

"How… how did you do that?" White asked. "You took on three guys, all much bigger than you, one even holding a knife. All by yourself, barehanded, and you still beat them all down easily. How did you do that?"

"That's why she's a barbarian," Ruby said from behind. "Give her a cudgel and she'll fear no enemy. Not that she does to start with. Well, maybe except for _one_."

Sapphire scowled at him but let it slide. "I do a lot of sparring with my Pokémon. And lots of heavy lifting, I guess. You should give it a try too! I'll let Chaka spar with you if you want."

White quickly shook her head. "That's quite alright. I'm sure your Pokémon would kill me if I tried." She then politely bowed to her senior. "Thank you so much for saving me."

"It's all in the day's work of a senior."

* * *

**Black and White are using pseudonyms, in their BW2 attire, with their BW2 character names. How freaking uncreative. Well, at least it spares me the effort of thinking of new names that are going to be strictly temporary!**

**And now, every Dex Holder has made an appearance. Length of said appearance is another issue altogether, but eh, whatever. And Black has changed attire to BW2, just like White.**

**Ah, screw it. I'll just say it every other chapter. Vote now for the next chapter's segment. The tally shouldn't be too hard, as there are only 6 eligible for the vote thing. If you were a faithful reviewer at one point, and yet your vote doesn't appear in the start of the next chapter, then you were one of the 10+ people who had been revoked in the past three chapters.**


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